Re: [Proftpd-user] ProFTPd - virtual users + single ftp location

[TJ S. <tj...@ca...>]

> 2. Modified proftpd.conf
>
> DefaultRoot /srv/ftp
> RequireValidShell off
> AuthUserFile /etc/proftpd/ftpd.passwd
> AuthGroupFile /etc/proftpd/ftpd.group <https://ftpd.group>
> AuthOrder mod_auth_file.c

The AuthGroupFile directive only takes a single path; '/etc/proftpd/ftpd.group' in this case.  Any additional parameters may cause config parsing errors.

> 3. Create user using ftpasswd:
> ftpasswd --passwd --file=/etc/proftpd/conf.d/ftpd.passwd --name=user1 
> --uid=105 --gid=65534 --shell=/bin/false

Here, you are creating an AuthUserFile, using the `ftpassswd` utility, located at '/etc/proftpd/conf.d/ftpd.passwd'.  However, above you have configured AuthUserFile to point to '/etc/proftpd/ftpd.passwd', which is a different path.  Which is correct?

> 4. Start proftpd: systemctl start proftpd

Could you provide the contents of your '/usr/lib/systemd/system/proftpd.service' file?  I ask because sometimes the systemd unit file provided by a distribution may point to a different ProFTPD config file than the one edited, and/or provide other unexpected options.

Using an Ubuntu 24.04 Docker image, it looks to be:

  # cat /usr/lib/systemd/system/proftpd.service 
  [Unit]
  Description=ProFTPD FTP Server
  Documentation=man:proftpd(8)
  Wants=network-online.target
  After=network-online.target nss-lookup.target local-fs.target remote-fs.target

  [Service]
  Type=forking
  Environment=OPTIONS= CONFIG_FILE=/etc/proftpd/proftpd.conf
  EnvironmentFile=-/etc/default/proftpd
  ExecStartPre=/usr/sbin/proftpd --configtest -c $CONFIG_FILE $OPTIONS
  ExecStart=/usr/sbin/proftpd -c $CONFIG_FILE $OPTIONS
  ExecReload=/bin/kill -HUP $MAINPID
  PIDFile=/run/proftpd.pid

  [Install]
  WantedBy=multi-user.target

> Starting up gives me the following errors:"fatal: unknown configuration 
> directive" followed by the first line in the virtual users password file 
> (/etc/proftpd/ftpd.passwd). This error occurs twice, but the weird thing 
> is I am still able to login as user1.

Could you provide the exact errors you see on startup, please?

> Reddit's AI says that proftpd is looking for a format in 
> Apache format <User>....</User>

In this case, Reddit's AI is incorrect.  ProFTPD does not use that Apache format; see:

  http://www.proftpd.org/docs/howto/AuthFiles.html

> The main problem though, is that after logging in successfully, I can 
> download files from /srv/ftp, but I cannot upload ("Permission denied"). 
> The directory ownership of /srv/ftp is the same as the user running 
> proftpd (ftp:nogroup), but I suspect that I am missing some directive in 
> proftpd.conf, but I have no idea. Am I missing a step perhaps?

If you are able to run ProFTPD in debugging mode (which can itself be more challenging than expected, when dealing with systemd), it should log more details about why the uploads are not working as expected:

  http://www.proftpd.org/docs/howto/Debugging.html

Cheers,
TJ