Config of pure-ftpd need to be simplified.

[lildude]

This is probably more of an RFE than a Bug.

The current method of configuring pure-ftpd needs to be simplified

This is probably more of an RFE than a Bug.

The current method of configuring pure-ftpd needs to be simplified. At the moment, one needs to create a new file for each option within the /etc/pure-ftpd/conf directory with a one-liner with the required info so that the /usr/sbin/pure-ftpd-wrapper script can find/implement these options. This is not documented anywhere and I can't see how a person new to Linux/Ubuntu will be able to work this out if they don't know where to start looking.

Ideally, the configuration should be put into a single file, eg /etc/pure-ftpd/pure-ftpd.conf, and documented accordingly.

I hate to do this, but Gentoo has a good working implementation of this.

[Stefan Hornburg (Racke) (racke)]

README.Debian contains a pointer to the pure-ftpd-wrapper manual page, isn't that sufficient ?

[Reinhard Tartler (siretart)]

the configuration on pure-ftpd is indeed somewhat strange. the wrapper looks in a configuration directory for files, which resemble the options given to the daemon. This isn't that common in comparision with other unix services.

Perhaps you can explain how gentoo lets the user configure pure-ftp. Then we can perhaps talk and work with the debian maintainer on easier and more straightforward configuration on that.

[Stefan Hornburg (Racke) (racke)]

pure-ftpd is in fact unlike other unix services as it per se is only configurable per command line switches. You can talk to me about the configuration scheme used in Debian, no problem.

[Tristan Hill (stan)]

pure-ftpd comes with its own wrapper script (configuration-file/pure-config.*) which will build the command line options from a configuration file (which could be /etc/pure-ftpd/pure-ftpd.conf). It seems unfortunate that both debian and gentoo have decided to invent their own scheme, particularly for users of both type of system.

[pengu (jeremy-junksista)]

I agree with this. The pure-ftpd command line configuration is very simple, but this "1 option = 1 file" wrapper used in the ubuntu package is very unconfortable. It should be changed.

[Bilge (bbilge)]

I thought the pure-ftpd package would simplify my installation of the software but when I came across this problem I quickly removed it, compiled manually from the sources and wrote my own init.d script instead. Why? Because pureftpd SHIPS with both a perl and a python script to launch the daemon from a single config file already. Whoever designed this ludicrous package clearly had no intention of ever using the software at all. There is simply no reason to reinvent this software with any crazy distribution paradigms: one documented configuration file, job done.

[Julien Roncaglia (vbfox)]

I think that this issue should really be fixed in debian (or ubuntu directly if debian doesn't move) as it is really an usability nightmare to have one application where the distribution (and not the application) insist on a totally different configuration scheme than all others...

[R. Daneel Olivaw (rdaneel-olivaw)]

Has this issue been submitted to the maintainer of the debian package ?
If I get no response, I'll try to do that.

[Stefan Hornburg (Racke) (racke)]

R. Daneel Olivaw wrote:
> Has this issue been submitted to the maintainer of the debian package ?
> If I get no response, I'll try to do that.
>

Yes, the maintainer of the Debian package is aware of this Ubuntu bug.

Regards
         Racke

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[Amir (amirsan)]

5 years passed without any further action being done on this report. Are they still aware that they need to fix this issue? Why can't Ubuntu make their own fix?

[Mark Stosberg (markstos)]

I agree that the one-option-per-file scheme feels awkward. I would also prefer to have all the options in one file.

[Paulo Sergio Soares (paulosambista)]

How do I turn on the -P "Force the specified IP address" option with this new awkward one-option-per-file scheme?

Thanks in advance

[Paulo Sergio Soares (paulosambista)]

Just found it: ForcePassiveIP

[Brett Patterson (b-a-patterson)]

The biggest issue I see is that in the documentation for PureFTP it states you can repeat an option "-d" to allow for logging of server responses as well. How do you accomplish this in the option per file scheme?

From the documentation:

- '-d': Send various debugging messages to the syslog. Don't use this
unless you really want to debug Pure-FTPd. Passwords aren't logged.
Duplicate '-d' to log responses, too.

[Brett Patterson (b-a-patterson)]

I ended up editing the wrapper to allow for a second file "VerboseLog2" to provide the second "-d" since there was no other way I could see to allow the "-d -d" option in the daemon command.

[Aram Akhavan (kayson)]

I just installed pure-ftpd for the first time, and this config system is absolutely ludicrous. I can't believe it hasn't changed in 10 years. Instead of a wrapper script, why not just call pure-ftpd /etc/pure-ftpd/pure-ftpd.conf...

[Jake Magee (jakemagee)]

Obviously, this package has been updated since the original bug / feature ticket was placed. Is it possible that the ability to use a single conf file (with options as documented in the upstream package) was added and the ticket just hasn't been updated?