I need to set up an ftp site to allow various users to read, write and delete files and directories. Basically it is a big file sharing area. (legal uses... we own the copyright of the files...)

The users are using a variety of platforms, so ftp and web-browser access has been chosen. We've got the firewall only allowing access from certain IPs and users at those IPs log in as anonymous. That part works fine.

I've got vsftpd installed and running on an FC3 computer. I've got permissions problems with several of the operations, such as uploading a file or folder, deleting files and rewriting files.

I'm confused about the permissions and settings that should be used with vsftp. Who/what should the owner and permission of the "pub" directory ? What user and permission does an anonymous user have ? What group does it belong to ?

Thanks for any and all help.

You could Chmod the directory, "PUB"
chgrp ftp pub
(/\ /\ changes group associated w/ the ftp directory)
chmod -R u=rwx, o-rwx, pub
(/\ /\ Change the read, write, and execute files permissions)
and you create users using the command:
useradd -m -d /home/bradr
passwd whatever
(change the bradr to whatever you want as the user name and whatever for the password)
then, enable local user logins in here, if your doing this over a local network
/etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf
the line should be somthing like: local_enable=YES
if its set to no, and if it has a # before it, change those.
if you have any more questrions, or i wasnt clear enough, go ahead and post back here, ill check back, thanks

re:

You could Chmod the directory, "PUB"
chgrp ftp pub
(/\ /\ changes group associated w/ the ftp directory)

>> I did this.

chmod -R u=rwx, o-rwx, pub
(/\ /\ Change the read, write, and execute files permissions)

>> I did a chmod 777 pub

and you create users using the command:
useradd -m -d /home/bradr
passwd whatever

>> I wanted to have everyone use anonymous access. I've got about 10 people using this directory and I don't want to set up 10 users, or even one user if I don't have to. Do I have to ?

(change the bradr to whatever you want as the user name and whatever for the password)
then, enable local user logins in here, if your doing this over a local network
/etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf

>> that makes sense

the line should be somthing like: local_enable=YES
if its set to no, and if it has a # before it, change those.

>> and presumably disable anonymous access

if you have any more questrions, or i wasnt clear enough, go ahead and post back here, ill check back, thanks

>> Is it possible to allow deletes and updates with an anonymous user ?

>> Also, if I upload a file to /pub, it appears fine. If I upload a file to /pub/new, it doesn't appear. Any ideas ?

>> Thanks for your help.

I created an account for the entire company and disabled anonymous logins. Everything works fine now. Users can create, delete, edit and overwrite at will. Yes, I know about CVS...

Thanks for your help.

sounds good