topic Re: Need recommendation for good customizable FTP server in Operating System - Linux

Need recommendation for good customizable FTP server

Debbie Fleith — Mon, 07 May 2007 12:31:33 GMT

We need to re-develop an outdated wu-ftp server that had these custom features:

--Placing large inbound ftp files in a specific directory.
--Renaming the files to date-time-stamp names and then moving those files to other directories once the file transfer is complete.

What FTP server is recommended these days for customization? I don't see our needs taken care of with vsftp.

Re: Need recommendation for good customizable FTP server

Steven E. Protter — Mon, 07 May 2007 12:47:46 GMT

Shalom,

wu-ftpd is very customizable btw, and most of the above can be done with the home directory of the user, though some cron scripting may be required.

the standard vsftpd for Linux can do some of what you want. Good admin scripting will have to do the rest.

Note that in their default configuration both of the above authenticate in clear text (not secure) and vsftpd permits anonymous ftp and does not chroot its users.

Going to an sftp based solution might be better. openssh is a standard component of all linuxes.

SEP

Re: Need recommendation for good customizable FTP server

Court Campbell — Mon, 07 May 2007 12:58:48 GMT

I wouldn't think that you would need to customize and ftp daemon to do the things you require. I would think all this would be handled via scripts. Just my thoughts.

Re: Need recommendation for good customizable FTP server

Debbie Fleith — Mon, 07 May 2007 13:03:44 GMT

We have provided our customers with a simple way of automating the file transfer of interface files to our Linux server. Their non-Linux servers initiate the file tranfer. Due to not being able to change how their end works, we need our end to work the same way. We do not know what time the files will arrive and the inbound files are named the same, so, we cannot have the files over-writing each other.

Re: Need recommendation for good customizable FTP server

Court Campbell — Mon, 07 May 2007 13:26:23 GMT

Well, I usually do not modify source. But you would probably need to modify the source of whatever ftp daemon you used. I wish I had a better answer for you. My only other thought is to try

http://search.cpan.org/~rwmj/Net-FTPServer-1.122/lib/Net/FTPServer.pm

Being that it is written in perl it would probably be easier to hack and customize.

Re: Need recommendation for good customizable FTP server

dirk dierickx — Tue, 08 May 2007 01:41:59 GMT

the question is if it is 100% impossible to change something on the client site.

if for example you would be able to add a 'site exec' command at the end of each transfer, you could let it execute a script on the ftp server that does whatever you want with that file.

from the manpage:

The SITE EXEC command may be used to execute commands in the /bin/ftp-exec directory. Take care that you understand the security implications before copying any command into the /bin/ftp-exec directory. For example, do not copy in /bin/sh. This would enable the user to execute other commands through the use of sh -c. If you have doubts about this feature, do not create the /bin/ftp-exec directory.