Upcoming Article About Open Suse As An FTP Server

This is a heads up for all my friends here, especially you moderator types. Sometime in September, another article by yours truly will appear in Radio World Engineering Extra. This one will cover installing OpenSuSE and using it to set up an FTP server.

Believe it or not, in broadcasting, many new applications have appeared that want the good 'ol File Transfer Protocol. These are mostly automated services – for example, traffic and weather reports – that are received, then automatically inserted for airplay that scheduled time(s).

Anyway. You may get some requests for help from people new to OpenSuSE. Just wanted to let you know. :slight_smile:

– Stephen

On 2014-08-05 19:06, smpoole7 wrote:

> Anyway. You may get some requests for help from people new to OpenSuSE.
> Just wanted to let you know. :slight_smile:

And you want VIP treatment for them? :-))

We always treat newcomers well. They just have to give the information
we ask from them :wink:


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.

(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” (Minas Tirith))

Thanks for your efforts with publishing the article and promoting the virtues of using openSUSE for this purpose. We welcome any newcomers that may come our way as a result of this. :slight_smile:

Good news
Well done

Thanks for the kind words – and I assure you folks, I’m not going to throw these readers off on you. I’ll try to make time to come in here and help myself. :slight_smile:

Looks like it’s going to be a two-parter. I’ve just submitted part 1, which merely sets up a basic FTP server that folks can play with. The 2nd part will harden it.

The most common way that a broadcaster will use FTP is, various clients will upload files – paid programs, commercial material, interviews, and so on. Each of these clients will have his/her own directory. I will create accounts for each of these, but with a twist: instead of having separate /home directories for each of these clients, they’ll have a single blank subdirectory under a “master” FTP account, a user called “ftpadmin.”

(You have no idea how delighted I was to see that Yast->Users And Groups->Add User made this such a breeze.) :slight_smile:

In other words, the tree will look kind of like,


/home
          /ftpadmin
                      /ftpuser1
                      /ftpuser2

Everyone is chroot’d. ftpuser1 and 2 can’t see each other’s files, but ftpadmin will have access to all of the uploaded stuff. ftpadmin, on the other hand, won’t be able to go all over the filesystem. As it should be. :slight_smile:

It took a little work with the umask and a couple of other settings, but it appears to be working quite well.

I love OpenSuSE!

Fantastic! I love reading of useful projects such as this, especially when it shows users about the real-world applications that openSUSE can play a part in. You community effort is appreciated. :slight_smile:

On 2014-08-10 23:06, smpoole7 wrote:

> In other words, the tree will look kind of like,
>
> Code:
> --------------------
>
> /home
> /ftpadmin
> /ftpuser1
> /ftpuser2
>
> --------------------

I suggest you use something like this instead:


/home
/ftp/admin
/ftp/user1
/ftp/user2

Mainly because it makes backups easier. You can place “/ftp” on another
disk or partition, which makes upgrading easier - same idea as for
having “/home” on a separate partition.

Although I think the preferred location would be “/srv/ftp/”, I think.

> It took a little work with the umask and a couple of other settings, but
> it appears to be working quite well.

You may also consider a look at “man lsattr” (or man attr on xfs) and
“man acl”.


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)