Subject: RE: site exec?

From: "Marxen, Sara" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 10:37:22 -0700

Thanks for your response....
I was looking for something that would kick off a script when a
particular
real user logged in and uploaded some files.  Would this do this, or is
there 
a better way?  

The only other way I could think of is to try to time the transer and
then periodically check after a certain period if the files are present
and if
they are then run the script.

> ----------
> From: 	Gregory A Lundberg[SMTP:[email-masked]]
> Sent: 	Thursday, September 10, 1998 12:31 PM
> To: 	Marxen, Sara
> Cc: 	WU-FTPD Discussion List
> Subject: 	Re: site exec?
> 
> On Thu, 10 Sep 1998, Marxen, Sara wrote:
> 
> > I'm looking for information on site exec - what it does and how to
> > configure it (if need be) I've been to the faq and archives and can
> > find people talking about it but not any actual documentation on it.
> 
> 'SITE EXEC' attempts to run the given program.  The program is set up
> much
> like 'ls' for anonymous or guest ftp users.  The usefullness of this
> feature is virtually NIL unless you have a _very_ specific need for
> it;
> inapropriate use can open your site up to all kinds of abuse.
> 
> -- 
> 
> Gregory A Lundberg		Senior Partner, VRnet Company
> 1441 Elmdale Drive              [email-masked]
> Kettering, OH 45409-1615 USA    1-800-809-2195
>

---

From: Gregory A Lundberg <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 13:56:29 -0400 (EDT)

On Thu, 10 Sep 1998, Marxen, Sara wrote:

> particular real user logged in and uploaded some files.  Would this do
> this, or is there a better way?
> 
> then periodically check after a certain period if the files are
> present and if they are then run the script.

Write a cron script to check periodically for new files in the upload
area.

In answer to your earlier question, by example using 'ls'

su
mkdir ~ftp/bin/ftp-exec
chmod 111 ~ftp/bin/ftp-exec
touch ~ftp/bin/ftp-exec/.notar
chmod 444 ~ftp/bin/ftp-exec/.notar
ln ~ftp/bin/ls ~ftp/bin/ftp-exec

ftp localhost
user:ftp pass:me@
quote site exec ls -alR /pub

We need to use 'ls'in this example because (1) it's relatively safe and
(2) it's the only thing known to work in the chroot'd environment where
the anonymous ftp user finds himself.

In this environment you DO NOT want to be able to run a script unless you
don't care about security and never connect to any network or LAN. Also,
for your purposes, there's virtually NO chance the users will remember to
run the 'site'exec' or, if they would, they'd have to be using an ftp
client which allows such commands (web clients know ftp, but not 'site'
commands).

--

---

From: Jim Bootz <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 13:09:11 -0500

I'm sure a lot of other subscribers have gotten requests of this kind.
There are users, particularly those from the mainframe side, who want
notification and/or verification that the files have been transferred. Or,
they want  the data parsed or massaged in some way when it gets to the
server, hence the appeal of "messaging software".  I make it a point not to
put apps on a secure FTP server. If the box is accessible at all from the
internet, it should be a passive repository. The less it does, the better.
Besides, there's enough to do without having to support somebody else's
applications or writing them ourselves.  And heaven forbid we should start
handing out telnet logins to the developers. I'd see if the script could
run on the client rather than the server.