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UNIX03/Introduction To WU-FTPD

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If you really have a need for an FTP server, then be sure to take careful consideration when researching which FTP server to run.

WU-FTPD is one of the more secure FTP daemons (another is ProFTPD?). Because it must open a port below 1024, WU-FTPD must run with root priviledges. However, one of the strengths of WU-FTPD is that it is quite simply to chroot.

WU-FTPD homepage: http://www.wu-ftpd.org/

WU-FTPD usually has it's configuration files stored in /etc/wu-ftpd. Inside this directory under Debian, you will find the following helpful README:

WU-FTPD configuration, /etc/wu-ftpd/

------------------------------------

The /etc/wu-ftpd directory is the default location for WU-FTPD configuration files ftpaccess, ftpconversions, ftpgroups and ftphosts.

There are some additional helpful files there, check them out. You should place any message/shutmsg/banner files you create here. Example configuration files can be found in /usr/share/doc/wu-ftpd/examples/.

Please remember that some of these files, like pathmsg or welcome.msg, may have to be placed under the anonymous FTP user's home directory (~ftp/etc) to be used while the anonymous FTP user is logged in. This can be configured in the /etc/wu-ftpd/ftpaccess file.

If you want to offer additional commands for the SITE EXEC command, you will have to install these commands in /usr/bin/ftpexec (for real users) or ~ftp/bin/ftpexec (for anonymous users). Symbolic links may be used between the commands in /usr/bin (or any other directory) and /usr/bin/ftpexec. However, you shouldn't use symbolic links for the commands in the ~ftp/bin/ftpexec directory (unless you really know what you're doing).

ftpaccess

ftpaccess is the main configuration file for WU-FTPD. It's configuration format is similar to many other UNIX configuration files:

 paramater value [value, value, ....]

All of its features and functionality can be found in its man page (which you can access online here: http://www.wu-ftpd.org/man/ftpaccess.html)

ftphosts

The ftphosts file is used to allow or deny access to certain accounts from various hosts. This file is usually not present by default, but should be created and used if you really need an FTP server.

See its man page for usage (which can be found online here: http://www.wu-ftpd.org/man/ftphosts.html)

ftpconversions

The conversions known by ftpd and their attributes are stored in an ASCII file that is structured as below. Each line in the file provides a description for a single conversion. Fields are separated by colons (:).

 %s:%s:%s:%s:%s:%s:%s:%s
 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8

 Field          Description
 1             strip prefix
 2             strip postfix
 3             addon prefix
 4             addon postfix
 5             external command
 6             types
 7             options
 8             description

By way of a concrete example, let's look at the following setting for .bz2 compressed files:

 :.bz2: : :/usr/bin/bzip2 -cd %s:T_REG|T_ASCII:O_UNCOMPRESS:bunzip2

You will probably never need to modify this file, as it contains sensible defaults.

other files

There are other configuration files which you may or may not wish to use. Man pages for them can be found online here: http://www.wu-ftpd.org/man/

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