Subject: Guest and non-guest login

From: Thom Dunaway <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 2 Apr 97 14:02:48 -0500

I installed several months and am just now getting around to trying to 
fix a problem.  I have guests logging in to virtual servers and I would 
like to log-in myself without the restrictions.  I am in a diff group 
than the guest group, yet the only way I can log-in is if I make my home 
directory the root directory.  If I set my home directory to anything 
else (Like /usr/home/thom) I get an error that the directory does not 
exist, and then an error "Can't create datasocket".  I'm sure that I am 
just an edit away. A suggestion or a shove in the right direction will be 
appreciated.

*******************************
Host House Web Hosting Services
[email-masked]
www.hosthouse.com
*******************************

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From: Thom Dunaway <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 6 Apr 97 21:01:01 -0500

Sorry, I was trying to be brief because I hate long e-mails and I made 
several assumptions.  Let me elaborate.

I have wuftpd compiled to handle virtual servers, using "/./" at the end 
of each guest's home directory to invoke the chroot.  Guest users are 
group "users" as defined in /etc/ftpaccess.  I am a member of that group 
and I am also a member of serval other groups.  What I am trying to do is 
define my home directory in /etc/passwd so when I telnet in I have my 
shell set up like I like it.  The problem involves wuftpd because when I 
have my home directory set in /etc/passwd, I get the errors when I try to 
FTP in.  The only way I can successfully FTP to the box (and have access 
to the entire box) is if I set my home directory to the machine root.  

I hope this help and I appreciate the responce Michael.

Anything else and I get the errors.  Is this addressed in the howto you 
reference?  Where is this howto?

>On Thu, 3 Apr 1997, Thom Dunaway wrote:
>
>> Why don't my posting show up in this list?  This is my third attempt.
>
>I for one find your question unclear.  It also seems to show a basic lack
>of understanding about FTP logins and Unix permissions in general.  Not to
>be cold, but few have time to explain Unix basics for a daemon that
>already requires a good understanding to set up.  If you don't have the
>basics down and can't set up a secure ftp server, you may be setting
>yourself up for a hack. 
>
>
>> like to log-in myself without the restrictions.
>
>What restrictions?  Guest restrictions?  Permission/access permissions?
>
>What do you want to be able to do?
>
>If you want to be able to log in as an effective "superuser" over your
>virtual users and do anything you want, you will have to understand
>permissions and ownership and set all files and directories appropriately.
>If you are a different user in a different group, then you cannot do
>anything you want without setting everything world read/writeable.  For
>fairly obvious reasons one would not want to do that. 
>
>
>> I am in a diff group 
>Is this a real login (not chrooted guest)?  You did not say, but it is
>important.  If it is a 'real user' login, it should work; if not, you are
>missing something fundamental in your system structure.  Go over the howto
>and make sure that all required libs and devices exist for your system. If
>this is a guest login and /usr/home/thom does not have the proper
>directory structures, it may well fail like this.  But you knew that. 
>
>   -- Michael
>
>

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From: "Robert Peebles" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 07 Apr 1997 16:38 -0500

As a neophyte who has been reading silently, and looking for any FAQ   
info, I think these are all excellent ideas!

>I think it might help if the mailing list server could add a few lines   
at
>the bottom of every message to list the locations of some of the most   
useful
>FAQs.  Say, Koos' FAQ (http://www.cetis.hvu.nl/~koos/wu-ftpd-faq.html),
>guest how-to (ftp://ftp.fni.com/pub/wu-ftpd/guest-howto), Kent's virtual
>server FAQ (http://www.landfield.com/wu-ftpd/virtual-ftp-faq.html) and
>perhaps Paradise Cowgirl's Solaris 2 FAQ
>(http://www.teleport.com/~minerva/wu-ftpd/wuftpd.shtml).

>It might also be worth mentioning one or two of the mailing list   
archives;
>Kent has one at http://www.landfield.com/wu-ftpd/mail-archive/.

>And putting the same info in the standard "welcome to the mailing list,
>here's how to unsubscribe" message wouldn't hurt either.

---

From: Thom Dunaway <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 7 Apr 97 15:35:24 -0500

This "neophyte" does know the basics of Unix and has read the faq but did 
not think I need to impress you with that knowledge.  I actually thought 
you would have enough knowledge to decifer my problem without telling you 
I know how to set file permissions.  Since you claim to be such an 
expert, I certainly hope you will find my elaborations (in subsiquent 
posts) about my situation enough information to offer a suggestion or 
remedy.  I look forward to your solution.

>[email-masked] says:
>all i can say is "thank you" for expressing my opinions exactly.  the s/n
>on this list is considerably lower than it should be because of neophytes
>who don't know the basics of unix config and who don't read the faqs.
>
>-- 
>bruce draper		| "just because we make it is no reason for me to
>			|  refrain from observing the emperor has no clothes"
>[email-masked]	|                      -- me
>