FTP/sFTP problem

[william drescher]

On 9/11/2018 7:43 AM, Karl Auer wrote:
> On Tue, 2018-09-11 at 06:45 -0400, william drescher wrote:
>> As of the upgrade to 16.04 LTS I have been unable to use FTP or
>>>> sFTP to put files on the server.
>> [...]
>> what do you suggest for the next step ?
> 
> First, describe exactly what happens when you try. Immediate failure?
> Error messages? Long pause? Absolutely nothing?
> 
> "Unable to use" is about as useful as going to the doctor and saying
> "it hurts" :-)
>   
> - can you connect via ssh using the same username/key as you are using
> with sftp?
> 
> - try using the command-line sftp client instead
> 
> - turn on debugging: "sftp -vvv user at hostname"
> 
> - look in /var/log/sshd on the server for any clues
> 
> That's a start :-)
> 
> HOWEVER: My cursory look at HTML-Ket suggests that it does not actually
> support SFTP. And the sshd server definitely does not support FTP. I
> would suggest getting absolutely categorical proof that HTML-Kit does
> in fact support SFTP before wasting too much more time.
> 
> If you need to use FTP (which I very strongly do not recommend outside
> your local network), you will need different server software such as
> vsftpd.
> 
> It's apparently possible (though I have never done it because FTP bah
> pfooey) to run passive FTP over an ssh tunnel configured to act as a
> SOCKS5 proxy, but I leave that as an exercise for the reader. A VPN
> would probably be simpler.
> 
> Another alternative is to have a local mirror of your work, and drop it
> over to your server via rsync. So if you have e.g. a directory
> /var/www/html on your server that you need to update, have a directory
> ~/html locally and work with that instead. Whenever you want to update
> the server, run "rsync -a ~/html/ me at server:/var/www/html"
> 
> That works with any directory of course, as long as you have write
> access on the server. But you mentioned HTML, so my example assumes a
> webserver.
> 
> Not sure how multiple users are working with your server; they could
> each have a different directory f course.-
> 
> Anyway, that's all I can think of for now :-)
> 
> Regards, K.
> 
> 
You are terrific.
Thanks

Turns out you were right. HTML-kit does not use sFTP.
I found the problem in vsftpd.conf.
Apparently the default for 16.04 LTS is to comment out
  write_enable = YES

so obvious.  I got started down the wrong path early in the 
problem solving.

BTW: this is being used only on a local network with non-routable 
IP addresses.

-bill