Subject: NFS mounting of ftpd seems to require root-write access !?!

From: "Karl Hanzel (CSDG)" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 15 Jun 1995 18:54:27 -0600 (MDT)

Hello,

I am installing wu-ftpd on a series of workstations, but am encountering a
problem, whereby it seems that the NFS-fs upon which ftpd lives must be
exported root-writable.  This fs is _not_ the same fs where _PATH_PIDNAMES
& _PATH_XFERLOG are pointing... to be sure, those are on a local fs, and
certainly certainly writable.  The ill behavior is noted promptly upon 
connecting to the ftpd, in that banner messages are not displayed, and more 
significantly, the user is falsely denied access.

Exporting the fs where ftpd (and it's config files) live root-writable
fixes the problem completly (near as i can tell) when dealing with a
wu-ftpd compiled-for-&-exported-from-&-to an HPUX host.  The same scenario
also being true for SunOS.  Furthermore, i don't see as where that NFS fs
ever gets written-to by root on behalf of ftpd, so it shouldn't need to be
root-writable, not to mention that we really don't want to export it that
way! 

In the FIXES file, i see that v2.1e fixed a problem with "NFS and server
running as root"... which may or (more likely) may not be the problem i'm
seeing.  Ftpd should run as root (configurable in inetd.conf), right? 

Certainly this must have been encountered previously, so _thanks_ for 
your help, and _apologies_ for dredging up old problems that might be 
addressed in an FAQ file that i haven't yet found.

I'm working with "Version wu-2.4(6)".

*----->

Karl Hanzel        UCAR/COMET Systems Administrator     Boulder, Colorado
------------------------------------+------------------------------------
(303)497-8479   >> WORK <<          |          (303)443-6602   >> HOME <<
[email-masked] (MIME)          |          [email-masked] (NeXT/MIME)