Where should I set a FTP user's home directory?

Question

I want to create an FTP account on my Ubuntu server that amongst other things, runs as a LAN webserver.

Should I set the FTP user's home directory to /var/www/, or should I set it differently?

I ask because I want it to be easier to upload to this default directory instead of doing:

scp XXX ubuntu@ubuntu-server:/var/www/

every time.

Answer 1

You should be able to add a FTP user via this command:

sudo useradd userftp -p your_password -d /home/FTP-shared -s /bin/false

Wherein, userftp is the username, your_password is the password, and /home/FTP-Shared is the path.

I personally use this in proftpd, but I'm pretty sure the command should be universal.

Note that this user has been created only for FTP access, and as a result does not need a valid shell (making it slightly more secure) hence the "bin/false".

So basically for your case, just create the user and set its home directory to /var/www. However, remember to first chown and chmod the directory appropriately so that the new user may access it (be sure to add him to the appropriate group, etc).