Level 3 — Hosting & Command Line

This site does not live “in WordPress”. It lives on a real server, and WordPress is just one program on it. This level is how the whole stack fits together — using this very site as the example:

1. The domain — the name (playground.stutstech.com). A name is rented, pointed, and renewed — it is not the website itself.
2. DNS — the phone book that points that name at the server’s address. Change the record, and the name finds a different computer.
3. The server — a computer that is always on. It runs the web server software (nginx) that answers visitors, the PHP that runs WordPress, and the database (MariaDB) that stores everything.
4. SSL — the padlock. A certificate (here: Let’s Encrypt, free, auto-renewing) proves the name and encrypts the trip between visitor and server.
5. Files + database — the two halves of every WordPress site, again. Hosting is mostly keeping those two halves safe, backed up, and reachable.

The command line sandbox

Real hosting work happens in a terminal — typing commands instead of clicking. Your sandbox gives you a real Linux command line that can only see this playground: its files, its logs, its WordPress (through a tool called WP-CLI, which can do anything the Dashboard can, by typing).

Inside the sandbox you can list files, read logs, edit, move, rename — and yes, break this site. The sandbox itself can be reset, and it cannot reach any other website or the rest of the server. Your teacher will hand you the sandbox login when you start this level — or sooner if you go looking for it. It is not locked; it is just a lot more fun once you know what a file, a folder, and a permission are.

First commands you will learn

• pwd — where am I?
• ls -la — what is here, including hidden files and permissions?
• cd — move between folders
• cat / less — read a file (start with the error log — it is this level’s best teacher)
• wp plugin list — WP-CLI: your whole plugin list, by typing