FTP Server fun
 

I want to set up an ftp server on my linux box, but all of the files I want to host are on a fat32 partition for windows. Normally this is no problem, but I am running into some difficulty because I want to be able to have different file permissions for different users, but fat32 does not support file permissions. Is there any kind of ftp server that will let me create permissions, for instance saying 'only users in group X can download from this folder' or 'users in group Y can't download anything', without specifying these permissions on the filesystem level?
Thanks very much,
bobthebat

Can't you create soft-links to those directories instead and set permissions on these links ??

wow, why is everyone so much smarter than me? :) thanks for your help.

OK, this is great in theory, but the problem is how do I maintain it? I have set up all of my links, and its fine for now, but later on, when I have more files and users, I will manually have to change stuff each time I add or remove a file. Is there some way I can automate this, or even some other solution?
thanks, bobthebat

heh, i'd be happy figuring out HOW to setup my own ftp server...

You could do the links at a directory level instead of for each file. I assume the directories wouldn't change as often as the files.
But alternatively you could run a script from a cron job that creates any symbolic links which aren't there yet.

Do a "man ftpaccess" and look at the sections for restricted access.