How to Authorize FTP Site Users in Linux

Create users on a Linux FTP server.

A server computer for the File Transfer Protocol keeps a repository of files organized into folders; FTP clients connect from remote locations to download files from the server. Clients may also upload files to the server as well, if their access credentials allow this operation. Each client has to log in to the FTP server using his user name and password. You can add FTP users on an FTP server running on Linux.

Instructions

1. Log in to the FTP server as "root" and in text mode. Linux will present you with the prompt of a shell, ready to receive and process command lines.

2. Enter the following command into the shell to create each new user: adduser -c 'Fabian Ulachevsky (FTP)' -m fabula. Replace "Fabian Ulachevsky" with the user's full name, and "fabula" with the user name he will use to access the FTP server. Press "Enter."

3. Set a password for the new user by entering "passwd fabula." Replace "fabula" with the actual username. Press "Enter." The "passwd" command will prompt you to enter a unique, hard-to-guess password twice. Press "Enter" after each time you enter the password.

4. Repeat the steps for each new user you want to add to the FTP server.

5. Make FTP accounts correspond to user accounts local to the server. The specific way of performing this step depends on the version of FTP server software. For example, for vsftpd, open file "/etc/vsftpd.conf" with a text editor and add this line: local_enable=YES. Save, and then exit the text editor.

6. Make configuration changes take effect. For example, for vsftpd, type the following command: service vsftpd restart. Press "Enter." After that, the new users will be authorized to log in to the FTP service from remote locations.

References

• NixCraft; How to Add FTP User With Linux; Vivek Gite; June 2006