FTP server, anyone?

Q&A
1

Hello Clear community,
I’d like to run an ftp server on my Clear Linux box. I didn’t find any bundle containing it. Should I compile from source (Pure-FTPd, vsftpd, or …?). Is there any cookbook available, or does anyone has experience and could give me some recommendations?
Thanks!

1 Like
2

Do you want it be accessible from WAN or just in LAN?
Because in the latter case you might not even need an FTP server. For example you can setup a WebDAV server.

3

You can use SFTP

https://docs.01.org/clearlinux/latest/guides/network/openssh-server.html#enable-sftp

1 Like
4

Way easier to setup and configure than the other options.

5

Thanks, but I’m afraid sftp won’t be the solution. I’m trying to connect a webcam that is only capable of exporting its images via ftp.
Both the cam and the linux box is in the same LAN, so no concerns about security here.

6

I haven’t seen a huge demand for FTP servers packaged in CL because of people advocating more secure protocols and SFTP/SCP providing most of the functionality people are looking for.

Since it sounds like your usage is pretty limited one idea could be to run a FTP server in a Docker container using one of the popular images on Docker Hub, like this one:

https://hub.docker.com/r/stilliard/pure-ftpd

2 Likes
7

My use case is indeed very limited and for personal use only, so I can live with that answer. I’ll try to compile ftp server software from source, and if this fails, I can try the Docker solution as you suggest.

I understand the concerns regarding security, though I think many legacy infrastructure still makes use of the (unsafe) ftp protocol.

Thanks again.

8