[HOWTO] Install pure-ftpd

[coolgrafix]

I'm attempting to use pure-ftpd's virtual users feature. But I'm running into trouble with pure-pw. Specifically, the command can't normally be found by the shell. When I explicitly call it (/usr/local/bin/pure-pw) it does run, so I'm confused and concerned I've whacked my installation somehow that isn't readily apparent.

I tried modifying /etc/profile with no luck, and modifying /etc/rc.common didn't seem to help any, either. So the question is, when using tcsh, what file do I need to edit to change the PATH where it looks for commands?

Feel like I'm missing something obvious here.

[gatorparrots]

See this thread for fixing the default tcsh behavior in Jaguar:
http://www.macosx.com/forums/showthr...threadid=26167

[coolgrafix]

Hmm, when I executed your suggestion:

sudo -s
echo "source /usr/share/tcsh/examples/rc" >> /etc/csh.cshrc
echo "source /usr/share/tcsh/examples/login" >> /etc/csh.login
echo "source /usr/share/tcsh/examples/logout" >> /etc/csh.logout
exit

...it didn't seem to solve the path problem and seems to have caused a login problem. Transcript follows:

[Brad-Kelleys-Web-Server:~] bradie% sudo -s
Password:
[Brad-Kelleys-Web-Server:~] root# echo "source /usr/share/tcsh/examples/rc" >> /etc/csh.cshrc
[Brad-Kelleys-Web-Server:~] root# echo "source /usr/share/tcsh/examples/login" >> /etc/csh.login
[Brad-Kelleys-Web-Server:~] root# echo "source /usr/share/tcsh/examples/logout" >> /etc/csh.logout
[Brad-Kelleys-Web-Server:~] root# exit
exit
[Brad-Kelleys-Web-Server:~] bradie% pure-pw
pure-pw: Command not found.

Logging out and then back into the server shows this at login:

Last login: Mon Jan 13 13:59:31 2003 from host12-14.disco
Welcome to Darwin!
TERM_PROGRAM: Undefined variable.

Any ideas what went wrong? I'm about to remove those lines we appended. =)

[gatorparrots]

You may have to get a new shell to realize the new configuration. Apart from that, you can explicitly add /usr/local/ to your path:
setenv PATH "${PATH}:/usr/local/bin"

And you may want to add these two environmental variables permanently to your ~/.tcshrc or ~/.cshrc file (whichever is appropriate for your configuration):
setenv PATH "${PATH}:/usr/local/bin"
setenv MANPATH "${MANPATH}:/usr/local/man"

Also, judging by your transcript you have discovered the bug in Apple's example tcsh behavior. It can easily remedied by following the solution at this link:
http://www.macfora.com/forums/showth...2510#post82510

And while you're at it, you may as well fix the other terminal configuration problem:
http://www.macfora.com/forums/showth...174#post113174

[fredfery]

Hi

I have a 10.2 running lukemftp 1.5

I am trying to set up a ssh tunnel to work with dreamweaver or fetch. I don't want to use clear text password stuff

The ssh tunnel works fine but I get this error trying to put files:

"An FTP error occurred - cannot get remote folder information.
425 possible PASV port theft, cannot open data connection."

1. Would this new pureftpd solve this issue
2. I am keen to install it, but how do you disable lukemftp
3. how can i choose between ProFTPd and pureftpd?

regards
Frederic

[gatorparrots]

1. You have to disable PASV mode transfers over the ssh tunnel (regardless of the FTP server daemon you choose). Active mode transfers are preferred, as their port range is controllable: 20-21. Passive transfers can pick any available port above 1024.

2. Disabling lukemftp is easy (and the instructions are included above). To sum it up:
sudo mv /etc/xinetd.d/ftp /etc/xinetd.d/ftp.default
This will move lukemftp aside, allowing you to put a new ftp configuration file in it's place. Restart xinetd to affect the change, either in the System Preferences>File Sharing pane (uncheck FTP access, then check it again with the new ftp configuration file in place) or
kill -1 `cat /var/run/xinetd.pid`

3. It's personal preference. Do you like XML-like configuration files? Use ProFTPd. Do you prefer command line switches for configuration? Use pure-ftpd. I tried ProFTPd but didn't like it. I found its configurations cumbersome and poorly documented. Also, it doesn't boast the security track record that pure-ftpd has. Pure-ftpd has yet to have a root exploit; also, it's fast, effecient, and highly configurable. The two servers share a lot of common features and are robust enough for heavy loads in a production environment, but for me the choice was clearly obvious.

[fredfery]

thanks

>1. You have to disable PASV mode transfers over the ssh tunnel (regardless of >the FTP server daemon you choose). Active mode transfers are preferred, as their >port range is controllable: 20-21. Passive transfers can pick any available port >>above 1024.

I am new to all that. How do do this. Is it something to be done in the daemon's config file?

Is /etc/xinetd.d/ftp lukemftp's config file?

I have also tried sftp and it seems ok, i can't get it to work with dreamweaver because it's not supported i think.

So i am quite keen to get the ssl tunnel to work

regards
Frederic

[gatorparrots]

I think you should fork off your questions about SSH tunneling to a new thread. I would like to keep this thread on topic as much as possible and the SSH tunnel is tangental but a separate topic.

/etc/xinetd.d/ftp is the xinetd services file for ftp. In OS X 10.2, it comes defaulted to using lukemftpd:

service ftp
{
        disable = yes
        socket_type     = stream
        wait            = no
        user            = root
        server          = /usr/libexec/ftpd
        server_args     = -l
        groups          = yes
        flags           = REUSE
}

(/usr/libexec/ftpd is really just an alias for lukemftpd). The configuration information under xinetd is the server_args line of this file (see my pure-ftpd example above).