[SOLVED] can i change default ftp session directory?

oznola · 04-09-2010, 06:48 PM

hi,

i have created a wordpress user with a symbolic link from his home (/home/wordpress) to /usr/share/wordpress but when wordpress ftps to wordpress home dir it does not follow the sym-link. is there a way to set default ftp dir for the wordpress user to /usr/share/wordpress rather than /home/wordpress?

thank you.

bathory · 04-10-2010, 02:22 AM

Hi,

To change the user's homedir, run:

Code:

usermod -d /usr/share/wordpress wordpress

Then check the permissions to make sure the user has read/write access on that dir.

Regards

oznola · 04-10-2010, 02:55 AM

hi,

ty for the answer to change the users home dir. that works when i ssh but not when i ftp.

when i ftp i am in /home but it says /.

Code:

af@gaga:~$ ftp bubba
Connected to bubba.localdomain.
220 ProFTPD 1.3.0 Server (Bubba) [::ffff:192.168.10.1]
Name (bubba:af): wordpress
331 Password required for wordpress.
Password:
230 User wordpress logged in.
Remote system type is UNIX.
Using binary mode to transfer files.
ftp> ls
200 PORT command successful
150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for file list
drwxr-xr-x   9 admin    users        4096 Apr  7 23:31 admin
drwxr-xr-x  12 af       users        4096 Apr  2 20:33 af
drwxr-xr-x   6 cnorland users        4096 Mar 22 05:54 cnorland
drwx------   2 root     root        16384 Jan 16  2009 lost+found
drwxrwxrwx  10 root     users        4096 Feb 12 10:32 storage
drwxr-xr-x   4 thomas   users        4096 Feb 26 19:24 thomas
drwxrwxr-x   2 admin    users        4096 Apr  7 01:25 web
drwxr-xr-x   4 wordpress users        4096 Apr  9 23:20 wordpress
226 Transfer complete.
ftp> pwd
257 "/" is current directory.
ftp> quit

can anyone advise?

thank you.

bathory · 04-10-2010, 04:04 AM

The homedir should be the same regardless if you're using ftp or ssh.
What ftp server are you using (vsftpd, proftptd etc)? Maybe you have to check its configuration to see how you define homedirs, or just restart ftp server.

Regards

nonamenobody · 04-10-2010, 05:11 AM

Quote:

when i ftp i am in /home but it says /

Take a look at your proftpd.conf, in particular the DefaultRoot directive. It looks like yours might be set to '/home', you probably want to set it to '~'.

BTW I find it very difficult to comment on an FTP thread, without saying:- FTP is an insecure tool for anything other anonymous FTP and that if you can't use something else (e.g. SFTP/SCP) then you should consider using virtual users (with different passwords to their corresponding user accounts (and perhaps different usernames)).

oznola · 04-10-2010, 06:19 PM

ty nonamenobody,

DefaultRoot directive was indeed set to /home. i have changed to the magic character "~" as advised.

how do i reload proftpd.conf?

also, i have the option of "FTPS (SSL)" in wordpress but when i try to use this method to login for my own user name on the command line of the client i get...

Code:

af@gaga:~$ ftps bubba
No command 'ftps' found, did you mean:
 Command 'ftpd' from package 'krb5-ftpd' (universe)
 Command 'ftpd' from package 'inetutils-ftpd' (universe)
 Command 'ftpd' from package 'muddleftpd' (universe)
 Command 'ftpls' from package 'ftpcopy' (universe)
 Command 'ftp' from package 'ftp-ssl' (universe)
 Command 'ftp' from package 'heimdal-clients' (universe)
 Command 'ftp' from package 'ftp' (main)
 Command 'ftp' from package 'inetutils-ftp' (universe)
 Command 'ftp' from package 'krb5-clients' (universe)
 Command 'ftp' from package 'gftp-text' (universe)
 Command 'ftp' from package 'tnftp' (universe)
ftps: command not found
af@gaga:~$

on the server i get...

Code:

bubba:/etc/proftpd# ftps
bash: ftps: command not found
bubba:/etc/proftpd# ssl
bash: ssl: command not found
bubba:/etc/proftpd#

when i try to install it i get this...

Code:

bubba:/etc/proftpd# apt-get install ftps
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
E: Couldn't find package ftps
bubba:/etc/proftpd#

it looks like my install options on the ubuntu client would be filezilla or kasablanca. i presume these would be needed on the server too.

is one of these packages preferred over the other in this application? recall i am trying to load plugins and themes for the web app wordpress. and i presume they will be available in the repositories for the debian server too.

i am not sure how to implement the other techniques you suggested. perhaps installing filezilla or kasablanca are preferred to the virtual user method?

thank you again.

ftp is hitting the right dir now. i will try and switch to filezilla.