centos 5.6 vsftpd default folder problem

Question

I installed vsftpd successfully, but whenever I connect to the server via Filezilla, I see the default folder is /root. How can I set up the default folder to be /var/www once I connect?

Answer 1

If you want to login as root and go straight to /var/www, then there's probably a Filezilla option for that (no idea what it is, I stopped voluntarily using FTP about 10 years ago).

What you should be doing instead, though, is learning how to administer your server properly. That includes things like not sticking web content into /var/www, and instead creating non-privileged users that own and manage the content for individual sites. Even if a server only hosts one site, it is far better that a regular user is the owner of the content, and my personal preference is for the site data to live in the user's home directory.

Answer 2

Because you are connecting as root and $HOME folder is /root.

You should create a new ftp user without login shell:

useradd -d /var/www -s /sbin/nologin <ftp_user>

(Remember to set chroot_local_user to YES to restrict ftp users to their home directory)

or setup virtual users.