Setting Up a Simple FTP Server on Debian

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) has been increasingly replaced by more secure protocols such as FTP over SSH, also known as SFTP. However, if you still need to use FTP for file sharing, setting up a simple FTP server on your Linux machine is relatively easy.

To get started, make sure your FTP server is running by typing `sudo systemctl restart vsftpd` in your command line.

One of the key features of VSFTPD (Very Secure FTP Daemon) is its chroot capability. This allows you to specify a directory where users are 'jailed' or confined to prevent them from accessing sensitive areas of the file system. To enable this feature, add or modify the following lines in your configuration file:

`chroot_list_enable=YES`

Additionally, you can set up a chroot environment by specifying a directory for anonymous logins and setting maximum transfer rates.

For anonymous logins, you can specify a directory using the `anon_root` variable. For example:

```

anon_root=/example/directory/

```

You can also control whether anonymous users are allowed to login by setting the `anonymous_enable` directive to `YES`.

To allow local users to login and make changes to the file system, set the `local_enable` directive to `YES` and `write_enable` to `YES`. This will enable users in `/etc/passwd` to login and upload files.

For more information on available options and basic documentation, refer to the man pages. By default, VSFTPD serves files from `/srv/ftp`, as per the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard.

To configure your FTP server, you'll need to edit the `/etc/vsftpd.conf` file using a text editor. This file is well-documented, so we won't go into too much detail here. Suffice it to say that most configuration options take place in this file.

If you're using an Arch-based distribution, you can install VSFTPD using the command `sudo pacman -S vsftpd`. For Ubuntu/Debian-based distributions, use `sudo apt-get install vsftpd`. If you're using Fedora/Red Hat/SUSE, try `dnf -y install vsftpd`.

The FTP protocol is still useful for sharing non-sensitive data, but it's worth noting that there are better solutions for secure file transfer and management, such as SFTP. In fact, the first two letters in VSFTPD stand for 'very secure', indicating its focus on security.

In this example, we'll use vsftpd to set up a simple FTP server to share files with friends and family.

Debian simple ftp server