FTP Service

The FTP server provides files transfers to and from outside. It supports authenticated mode (access via your Unix account) and anonymous mode (access for individuals without accounts at the laboratory).

NB the former FTP server has been closed, this one is fully reinstalled (new software, new server machine). The major visible difference is access to the anonymous FTP disk areas, now available from the files servers in the /home directories tree.

Authenticated access

From an outside machine, login with your Unix account :

~> ftp ftp.lra.ens.fr
Connected to ftp.lra.ens.fr.
...
220 FTP server ready
Name (ftp.lra.ens.fr:rabasse): rabasse
331 Password required for rabasse.
Password: ********
230 User rabasse logged in.
Remote system type is UNIX.
Using binary mode to transfer files.
ftp>

You are placed in your «home directory» :

ftp> pwd
257 "/home/rabasse" is current directory.
ftp>

All FTP commands, cd, put, get, del, mkdir, etc. are available.

NB if you are on an outside site which provides ssh tools, you should consider using sftp to access your local account, standard FTP does not encrypt your account informations.

Anonymous access

Anonymous FTP permits files exchanges with people who don't have a login account in the laboratory. These exchanges are made on a per user basis; each member of the laboratory owns two dedicated directories, one to provide files for downloading from outside (outgoing), the other to receive files uploaded from outside (incoming).

These directories are accessible from any machine on our network, via the home disks servers. Personal directories are named from Unix lognames, e.g. :

/home/ftp-outgoing/rabasse/
/home/ftp-incoming/rabasse/

Files setup for downloading

Copy the file(s) to your outgoing directory, e.g. :

cp archive.tgz /home/ftp-outgoing/rabasse/

then warn the recipient who will come and get the file the following way :

~> ftp ftp.lra.ens.fr
Connected to ftp.lra.ens.fr.
...
220 FTP server ready
Name (ftp.lra.ens.fr:rabasse): anonymous
331 Anonymous login ok, send your complete email address as your password.
Password:
230 Anonymous access granted, restrictions apply.
Remote system type is UNIX.
Using binary mode to transfer files.
ftp>
ftp> cd outgoing/rabasse
ftp> ls
-rw-r--r--   1 rabasse  ftp         29794 Jul 20 20:19 archive.tgz
ftp> get archive.tgz
ftp> bye
221 Goodbye.
~>

Uploading files

Anyone who wishes to give you a file will have to place it into your incoming directory :

~> ftp ftp.lra.ens.fr
Connected to ftp.lra.ens.fr.
...
220 FTP server ready
Name (ftp.lra.ens.fr:rabasse): anonymous
331 Anonymous login ok, send your complete email address as your password.
Password:
230 Anonymous access granted, restrictions apply.
Remote system type is UNIX.
Using binary mode to transfer files.
ftp>
ftp> cd incoming/rabasse
ftp> put fichier.tgz
ftp> bye
221 Goodbye.
~>

The uploaded file will be available, on our network, in the related directories tree, e.g. :

/home/ftp-incoming/rabasse/fichier.tgz

You can read it, move it elsewhere, etc.

Usage, cares

• Access rights on the outgoing and incoming directories should not be modified. They are properly configured, ab minima.

  Incoming directory :

  ~> ls -l /home/ftp-incoming
  ...
  drwxrws---  2 rabasse  ftp 4096 2006-07-21 14:38 rabasse
  ...
  

  Warning, the directory must have write access for the ftp group. Don't remove that flag or the server could no longer copy files uploaded to your attention.

  Outgoing directory :

  ~> ls -l /home/ftp-outgoing/
  ...
  drwxr-s---  7 rabasse  ftp 4096 2006-07-20 22:20 rabasse
  ...
  

  Access is restricted to the directory owner, and read access for the ftp group.

• Don't place, in the outgoing area, too much protected files, with read permission granted only to you. The server won't be able to access them on demand. It would make little sense and be useless paranoia, an anonymous FTP outgoing area is supposed to be world wide readable.

• Do frequent cleanups. The disk space allocated to the FTP service is not infinite and should not be thought as a storage area. Should it be full, the FTP service would become unavailable for all of us.

  Remove outgoing files once your peers have got them, remove incoming files once you have archived them elsewhere.