For those users who use cPanel/WHM on their virtual or dedicated servers the following article describes common system paths and utilities.
PHP
/usr/bin/php
MySQL
/var/lib/mysql
Sendmail
/usr/bin/sendmail
ImageMagick
/usr/local/bin/convert or /usr/bin/convert
Tomcat
/usr/local/jakarta/tomcat
Perl
/usr/bin/perl
Ruby
/usr/lib/ruby/
Ruby Gems
/usr/lib/ruby/gems
FFMPEG
/usr/bin/ffmpeg
Mplayer
/usr/bin/mplayer
LAME
/usr/local/bin/lame
FLV Tool
/usr/local/bin/flvtool2
Document Root
/home/username
WWW Directory
/home/username/public_html
CGI Directory
/home/username/public_html/cgi-bin
/usr/local/cpanel/bin
Houses only scripts and binaries which provide installation and configuration of many cPanel services.
/var/cpanel
Houses proprietary configuration data for cPanel, including:
- Primary cPanel configuration
- User configurations
- Reseller configurations
- Accounting, conversion, and update logs
- Bandwidth data
- Customized service templates
/var/cpanel/cpanel.config
The primary cPanel configuration file. Each variable within influences the way cPanel behaves, variables are line delimited, with variables separated by an equal sign. If this file does not exist cPanel falls back to defaults.
/var/cpanel/resellers
Lists each reseller with a comma-delimited list of WHM resources that reseller has access to.
/var/cpanel/accounting.log
Contains a list of accounting functions performed through WHM, including account removal and creation.
/var/cpanel/bandwidth
Files contain a list of bandwidth history for each account, each named after their respective user. History files are stored in human-readable format, while actual bandwidth data are stored in round robin databases.
/var/cpanel/features
File name is inherited from the feature list name. Contains a line delimited list of feature variables and a zero or one value. Variables control what cPanel resources are available to users.
/var/cpanel/packages
Contains a list of packages named after the packages they represent. If a package belongs to reseller file name is prefixed with reseller username. Each of these values determines the value created in cPanel user file.
/var/cpanel/users
Contains a list of cPanel user configuration files named after the user they pertain to. Variables define account resources, themes, domains, etc.
LOGS
This directory contains logs from account copies/transfers.
UPDATELOGS
Contains the output of each cPanel update executed on the server.
MAINIPS
Named after the respective reseller users they represent, each contains only the IP address which should be used as resellers main shared IP.
ZONETEMPLATES
Contains customized DNS zone templates created in WHM.
/scripts
This directory houses a large number of scripts which serve as building blocks for many cPanel/WHM features.
These scripts can be used to:
- Update cPanel and many of its services
- Customize account creation routines
- Perform backups of cPanel accounts
- Install and update cPanel managed services
By default cPanel applies nightly updates at 2:13AM server time via the root crontab.
/scripts/upcp dispatches these updates using the following key components:
/scripts/updatenow– synchronizes /scripts directory/scripts/sysup– updates cPanel managed rpms/scripts/rpmup– updates all other system updates
Updates are logged to timestamped files in /var/cpanel/updatelogs. Update configuration is stored in /etc/cpupdate.conf
/scripts/wwwacct (account creation)
/scripts/killacct (account termination)
/scripts/suspendacct (account suspension)
/scripts/unsuspendacct (account resuming)
/scripts/addpop (create pop account)
/scripts/updateuserdomains
Updates the user:owner and user:domain tables stored in:
/etc/userdomains
/etc/trueuserdomains
/etc/trueuserowners
These tables are used to enumerate and keep track of accounts and their owners.
/scripts/ensurerpm
Takes argument list of rpms, which are then passed to the underlying package manager.
/scripts/ensurepkg
The equivalent of ensurerpm for FreeBSD. Updates specified packages from ports.
/scripts/realperlinstaller
Takes argument list of perl modules to install via CPAN. Each of the aforementioned scripts can accept an argument of ‘–force’ to force package installations.
/scripts/mysqlup
Can be called to apply MySQL updates independent of upcp.
/scripts/cleanupmysqlprivs
Will clean up the default MySQL privilege tables, by installing a more restrictive privilege schema.
/scripts/mysqlconnectioncheck
Will verify that mysql is accessible with password stored in /root/.my.cnf and force a reset with a random 16 character string if inaccessible.
/scripts/eximup
Can be called to apply exim updates independent of upcp.
/scripts/buildeximconf
Will rebuild exim.conf, and merge local, distribution, and cPanel configurations.
/scripts/rebuildnamedconf
Rebuild named.conf based on existing zone files
/scripts/easyapache
Download, extract, and execute apache build script
/scripts/rebuildhttpdconf
Rebuilds httpd.conf based on DNS entries found in each cPanel user configuration
/scripts/restartsrv_{servicename}
The majority of cPanel managed service can be scripts named appropriately.
/scripts/makecpphp
Will rebuild the PHP interpreter used internally by cpsrvd.
/usr/local/cpanel/bin/checkperlmodules
Will scan for and install any Perl modules required by cPanel.
/scripts/fullhordereset
Updates horde and resets the horde mysql user password.
/scripts/fixquotas
Will attempt to rebuild quota database per information stored in /etc/quota.conf