FTP server on a Raspberry Pi

Time needed: 10 minutes

Steps to follow

1. Make sure your system is updated

   sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade

2. Install the FTP server

   sudo apt install vsftpd

3. Edit the configuration file

   A few lines need to be edited to achieve our goal. Find the following lines in the configuration file. (Use Ctrl + W to quick search). Change the values of the following lines accordingly.
   
   Open the configuration file sudo nano /etc/vsftpd.conf
   
   anonymous_enable=NO (default Value)
   local_enable=YES
   write_enable=YES
   local_umask=022 (default Value)
   chroot_local_user=YES
   
   Add the following lines at the end of the file, these settings lock the server users to the FTP folder within the home directory :
   
   user_sub_token=$USER
   local_root=/home/$USER/ftp
   
   Save and Exit the configuration file. Press CTRL + X and confirm with Y to save the settings and exit.
   

4. Create FTP user (optional)

   It is a good idea to create a different user to access your FTP server which will not have sudo access to the server. Skip to step 6 if you want to use default user pi.
   
   sudo adduser ftpuser
   
   type a strong password and leave everything to default if you like. Your terminal should look like the following image

5. Create an FTP directory for the new user

   We will create an FTP directory and a subdirectory as we will remove write permission in the parent directory.
   
   sudo mkdir -p /home/ftpuser/ftp/backups
   The -p argument instructs mkdir to create the entire path tree, both ftp and backups directories.
   
   Since we used sudo to create a directory in the home folder of non-sudo user. The directory belongs to root user.
   
   We can either add the user to sudoer group or change the directory permission. The latter is the better option. To change the ownership type –
   
   sudo chown -R ftpuser:ftpuser /home/ftpuser/ftp/
   

6. Change the permissions on the ftp directory:

   You must change the permission of the parent FTP directory, otherwise vsftpd will throw an error “vsftpd: refusing to run with writable root inside chroot()”
   
   sudo chmod a-w /home/ftpuser/ftp
   
   sudo is not necessary if you are the default user pi.
   
   P.S. Make sure you have made the directory for pi user mkdir -p /home/pi/ftp/backups

7. Restart Vsftpd Daemon

   To apply the changes we must restart the vsftpd daemon. Issue the following command –
   sudo service vsftpd restart

8. DONE!

   All right the FTP server is now working and ready to accept files via FTP. Grab the ip address of the server by issuing ifconfig, note it down we will need it in a bit. Given below is the process to connect to an FTP server.