How to set up FTP Apache, command line
 

Hi all -

I have a bit of a scenario here. My friend is running an Apache web server on a LInux box with a foo-bar'd GUI. (Somehow, he crashed the system to the extent that it continues to work as his web server, but cannot boot into X-windows).

Anyhoooo he wants to add FTP access to a subdirectory on his apache server. He can administer the server through the command line with no problem.

Here are my questions -

1. How can I check to see if any FTP programs already exist on the system? I suppose I could just do a "which" for the major ones, like proftpd? Anything else you'd suggest?

2. Assuming no FTP programs exist, are there any good (read: easy to set up) FTP servers that are command-line based, that I can install without access to the GUI? (I'm fine with the whole configure/make/make install process, if that helps. I have no idea what distro he's using).

3. And finally... just to verify that I'm understanding my tasks correctly. Once I install an FTP server and create a user account on the FTP server, I then have to chmod the web directory to 755 and give ownership to the FTP user. Is that correct?

Thanks in advance - I'm newbie-enough to Linux to not yet be comfortable administering someone else's machine!! (Hacking around on my own machine is fine - but this is a production web server, and even though it's screwed up to begin with, at least it's working, and I'd hate to do more damage!!)

:)

1) I would use locate rather than which - 'locate ftpd' (with an up-to-date locate database) should find you any of the common ftp daemons installed.

2) There are no FTP daemons I know of that required the GUI to configure - the same is true of most linux servers. Many distros supply configuration tools that manipulate the config files for you, but they are not necessary - just a command line, a text editor and the manual and you're good to go.

3) ?? this depends on what you're doing, how you're using ftp, and how you configure the FTP daemon. Once you've picked one, read the instructions before doing anything, and unless you need FTP access to the web server's pages directly, don't go changing any permissions. If you ftp in with a valid username/password, you will often have the same permissions that user has. Do some tests before making unnecessary changes, and keep the changes as minimal as possible.