Installing FTP Software

During the installation of Red Hat Linux from this book's companion CD-ROMs, you have the option to install the packages necessary for FTP. As described in Chapter 2, select the FTP Server package group when you are prompted for which packages to install.

Cross Ref

If you install the FTP Server package group during Linux installation, you do not have to do much more than start vsftpd to begin using FTP. Otherwise, you can use the Red Hat Package Manager (RPM) to install individual packages. Chapter 21 describes how to use the rpm program to install new software.

To access the RPM files for FTP, mount the appropriate CD-ROM with the following command:

mount /mnt/cdrom

Then, change the directory to /mnt/cdrom/RedHat/RPMS, where you will find the RPM files. Following are some of the RPMs you may want to install (shown is the RPM name; the actual filename starts with the RPM name, has a version number, and ends with an .rpm extension):

vsftpd (the Very Secure FTP daemon-an FTP server)
anonftp (anonymous FTP setup files)
ftp (an FTP client)
gftp (X Window System-based graphical FTP client)
ncftp (another FTP client)

You have probably already installed all of these packages. For this chapter, you should install vsftpd, anonftp, and ftp. The gftp package should be installed when you install the GNOME package group.