VSFTPd virtual filesystem?

[raoul]

I have no experience with ftp servers. I decided to ask just in case the answer is in the manual, but it's me that cannot find it... So, is it possible to create a virtual directory structure with vsftpd with its own permissions plus the real filesystem's permissions, like apache does, or this can be only done by creating the real directories/symlinks and setting permissions on the directories?

What I am trying to accomplish in my home lan is the following scenario:

1 - the ftp users to be able to access their home directories (Read/Write) plus a public directory (Read only)
2 - anonymous users to be able to access only the public dir (read only)
3 - the public directory has also an incoming directory, on which everyone can upload, but ftp users are able to view the uploads, while anonymous users cannot.

I have managed to partially create something similar to this by playing with directory permissions, but my real problem is with #1:
How to make it possible for ftp users, apart from their home dirs, to have access to the public directory, while making also possible to change between the home dir and the public dir with the same ftp session?

I hope you understand what I want to do. If it's not clear, I'll try to rephrase.

Thanks in advance.

[gavinw6662]

Originally Posted by raoul

I have no experience with ftp servers. I decided to ask just in case the answer is in the manual, but it's me that cannot find it... So, is it possible to create a virtual directory structure with vsftpd with its own permissions plus the real filesystem's permissions, like apache does, or this can be only done by creating the real directories/symlinks and setting permissions on the directories?

What I am trying to accomplish in my home lan is the following scenario:

1 - the ftp users to be able to access their home directories (Read/Write) plus a public directory (Read only)
2 - anonymous users to be able to access only the public dir (read only)
3 - the public directory has also an incoming directory, on which everyone can upload, but ftp users are able to view the uploads, while anonymous users cannot.

I have managed to partially create something similar to this by playing with directory permissions, but my real problem is with #1:
How to make it possible for ftp users, apart from their home dirs, to have access to the public directory, while making also possible to change between the home dir and the public dir with the same ftp session?

I hope you understand what I want to do. If it's not clear, I'll try to rephrase.

Thanks in advance.

Your best bet would be to use the vsftpd chroot option, and chroot the user into their home directory. Once there, then create a symlink to the external (public directory). If they need to access that public directory, then will just have to 'cd' into it. Make sense?

[raoul]

This is exactly what I tried to do, but, once chrooted, the user cannot follow the symlink. This seems logical, but maybe I miss something here...

Also, after some web searching I found the following:
http://www.am-utils.org/project-unionfs.html
http://podgorny.cz/moin/UnionFsFuse

I really do not know if these could help, but I 'll read about them more thoroughly at some later time.

There is no particular reason that i want to do this for, except for... just do it. Any help/idea is appreciated.