Summary

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a popular Internet service for transferring files from one system to another. This chapter describes the FTP service and shows you how to configure the vsftpd server that comes with Red Hat Linux.

By reading this chapter, you learn the following:

FTP is an important Internet service for transferring files from one system to another. FTP is documented in RFC 959.
You must set up and run an FTP server if you want your system's users to transfer files to and from the system. Red Hat Linux comes with the Very Secure FTP daemon (vsftpd), a popular FTP server.
The vsftpd server is set up to run standalone. You can start it with the command service vsftpd start. You can set the vsftpd server to start at boot time by typing the command chkconfig -level 35 vsftpd on.
You can configure the vsftpd server by editing the files /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd .conf, /etc/vsftpd.ftpusers, and /etc/vsftpd.user_list.
Anonymous FTP is another popular Internet service for distributing files. With anonymous FTP, anyone can use FTP with the anonymous user ID and can download files from your system. Although anonymous FTP is useful for distributing data, it poses a security risk if it is not set up properly.
The default Red Hat Linux installation includes everything needed to support anonymous FTP. The default anonymous FTP setup incorporates the necessary security precautions.