ftp2http

An FTP server that pushes uploaded files directly to a HTTP URL.

Overview

Think of ftp2http as a simple FTP layer that sits before a HTTP server.

An FTP client connects to an ftp2http server and uploads a file. The ftp2http server immediately uploads that file to the configured HTTP URL.

The server directory always appears empty to the client, even after a file has been uploaded. This is because uploaded files are only sent to the HTTP server, not stored.

Building and installing

Minimal effort has been put into the build scripts at this stage. We are using Scientific Linux 6 to build an x86_64 RPM.

Build RPM:

$ cd ftp2http
$ make

Install RPM:

$ cd ftp2http
$ rpm -i rpm/RPMS/x86_64/ftp2http-0.2-1.x86_64.rpm

Usage

• Install ftp2http
• Configure server by editing /etc/ftp2http.conf
• Run: ftp2http

We use circusd to manage the ftp2http process. An example configuration has been provided in the examples directory.

Authentication

Authentication can be checked against user accounts specified in the configuration file, or by configuring an authentication backend URL.

User accounts in the the configuration file

A specific format is used, which can be generated using the ftp2http -a command.

Example:

$ ftp2http -a
Enter a username: dogman
Enter a password:
Confirm password:

Add the following line to your configuration file.
user: dogman:$2a$12$5NyFA4AbEfmZiexG62qIieBu/isqwTYnta8H9gH5zC0lCRVKyMrc.

HTTP Basic Authentication

FTP login authentication can be performed via HTTP requests, using HTTP basic authentication. Set one or more authentication_backend entries in the configuration file, and then ftp2http will perform requests to check the FTP login details. Login details are accepted if an authentication_backend URL returns a 2xx response.

File uploads themselves can also use HTTP basic authentication. By enabling http_basic_auth in the configuration file, ftp2http will reuse the FTP login details for HTTP basic authentication when sending uploaded files to the target URL.