ftp or sftp

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mahmood
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ftp or sftp

Post by mahmood » 2018/09/07 09:43:50

It seems that ftp command is not available in centos7. Instead I see sftp.
Is that all? Is there any way to use ftp command? The program I use, only supports ftp command.

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TrevorH
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Re: ftp or sftp

Post by TrevorH » 2018/09/07 09:54:02

You would need to install it. Learn how to use yum by reading man yum and then check the output from e.g. yum provides '*/bin/ftp' which should tell you which package(s) provide that file then install the right one.
The future appears to be RHEL or Debian. I think I'm going Debian.
Info for USB installs on http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/InstallFromUSBkey
CentOS 5 and 6 are deadest, do not use them.
Use the FAQ Luke

mahmood
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Joined: 2017/06/04 12:21:09

Re: ftp or sftp

Post by mahmood » 2018/09/07 11:55:57

OK I now have these packages

Code: Select all

Installed Packages
ftp.x86_64                                                0.17-67.el7                          @base
vsftpd.x86_64                                             3.0.2-22.el7                         @base
Also I changes the pam service to ftp instead of vsftpd. However as you can see below, I can use sftp but ftp command doesn't work

Code: Select all

# systemctl list-unit-files | grep ftp
vsftpd.service                                enabled
vsftpd@.service                               disabled
vsftpd.target                                 disabled
# grep -r pam_service /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf
pam_service_name=ftp
# systemctl restart vsftpd
# sftp snadmin@localhost
snadmin@localhost's password:
Connected to localhost.
sftp> quit
# ftp snadmin@localhost
ftp: snadmin@localhost: Name or service not known
ftp>
May I know why?

lightman47
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Location: Central New York, USA

Re: ftp or sftp

Post by lightman47 » 2018/09/07 12:28:06

vsftp is an ftp SERVER - for setting up your own ftp site. Chances are it isn't what you wanted, but no harm done.

Incidentally, I use filezilla for my ftp chores. It just another option with a GUI.

mahmood
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Re: ftp or sftp

Post by mahmood » 2018/09/07 13:46:28

Well I am Using Oxwall which has a feature to upload plugins via ftp. I want to know why I can run sftp command but not ftp?

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TrevorH
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Re: ftp or sftp

Post by TrevorH » 2018/09/07 14:12:56

Because they are completely different things. The sftp client talks to the ssh daemon via tcp port 22 and all traffic is encrypted. It's a totally different protocol to ftp.

You did install the ftp package which does contain the ftp client but you need to use it properly. It wants a hostname or an ip address given to it and does not understand the user@host format so you need to ftp some.host.name and then once it talks to you then you can specify your username and password.
The future appears to be RHEL or Debian. I think I'm going Debian.
Info for USB installs on http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/InstallFromUSBkey
CentOS 5 and 6 are deadest, do not use them.
Use the FAQ Luke

mahmood
Posts: 122
Joined: 2017/06/04 12:21:09

Re: ftp or sftp

Post by mahmood » 2018/09/07 14:23:59

It seems that I totally confused ftp and sftp. All I see on the web regarding ftp are how to configure centos with vsftp.

I am not able to login with a user name

Code: Select all

# ftp localhost
Trying ::1...
Connected to localhost (::1).
220 (vsFTPd 3.0.2)
Name (localhost:root): snadmin
331 Please specify the password.
Password:
530 Login incorrect.
Login failed.
ftp> 
However, I have configures a vsftp.userlist and the sftp command works. I wonder where else have to define snadmin for ftp service?

mahmood
Posts: 122
Joined: 2017/06/04 12:21:09

Re: ftp or sftp

Post by mahmood » 2018/09/07 16:51:31

OK. I wrongly changed pam_service_name to ftp. The correct is vsftpd
Then I was able to login

Code: Select all

# ftp localhost
Trying ::1...
Connected to localhost (::1).
220 (vsFTPd 3.0.2)
Name (localhost:root): snadmin
331 Please specify the password.
Password:
230 Login successful.
Remote system type is UNIX.
Using binary mode to transfer files.
ftp> quit
221 Goodbye.

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TrevorH
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Re: ftp or sftp

Post by TrevorH » 2018/09/07 17:05:23

In general, if at all possible, ftp is to be avoided as it does all its traffic in plain text including usernames and passwords. It's also a pig to firewall properly as it uses one port for commands and then random ports to send data. Since sftp uses ssh as its transport, none of those apply.
The future appears to be RHEL or Debian. I think I'm going Debian.
Info for USB installs on http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/InstallFromUSBkey
CentOS 5 and 6 are deadest, do not use them.
Use the FAQ Luke

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