FTP short for File Transfer Protocol is a method of transferring files between computers over the Internet, WAN's and LAN's. FTP requires two programs, a server to host the files and a client to communicate with the server. Slackware Linux comes with both a ftp server and ftp client are included by default. Proftpd has been the default ftp server in Slackware for years but from version 10.2, Slackware now ships with vsftpd in the official packages also. Here I will outline how to setup and configure vsftpd in Slackware Linux to replace Proftpd .

Virtual Users

Before going on it is worth mentioning that Slackware does not come with PAM installed and thus the version of vsFTPD that ships with Slackware does not have PAM support.

For this reason if you wish to have virtual ftp users you must first install pam on slackware and then recompile VSFtpd with pam support.

Step 1: Ensure VSFTPD is Installed

On a normal installation vsftpd should be installed by default but it is worth checking. To see if it is currently installed we use slackwares package tool as follows.

• Run the pkgtool command
• Select "View"
• Press "v" to goto the start of the v[name] tools
• Use the arrow keys to see if it is listed (and thus installed)
• Press tab to select the cancel key, hit enter to exit the list
• Tab again to the calcel key, hit enter to exit pkgtool

Installing vsftpd

The easiest way of installing vsftpd if it is not already installed is to use the slackpkg tool. This tools makes life very easy, if you dont have it I advise you to install it. It can be found in the extra directory of your install disc

slackpkg install vsftpd