Chapter 1. Introduction to ProFTPD

1. What is ProFTPD?
2. What is the current version?
3. Version numbering scheme
4. Website & documentation
5. Bug reporting
6. I've found a security hole
7. Downloading
8. Mailing lists
9. Copyright Issues

1. What is ProFTPD?

ProFTPD is a ftp server primarily written for the various unix variants however it will compile under Cygwin giving some support on Windows platforms. It has been designed to be much like Apache in concept taking many of the ideas (configuration format, modular design, etc) from it.

2. What is the current version?

  • Stable: 1.2.6

  • Release Candidate: 1.2.7rc1

  • 3. Version numbering scheme

    At the moment there is a little irrationality in the numbering scheme however it can be summarised as follows

    1.0.x

    This is the previous stable version.

    1.1.x

    Development code

    1.2.0rcx

    Release candidate code, these releases are pretty much bug free and are testing releases prior to the final stable code.

    1.2.x

    This will be the stable cycle with the final .x being the incremental patches to fix bugs discovered after the release version is issued.

    1.3.x

    1.3.x is the planned development tree, work on this has been pushed back while more active development of 1.2.x is undertaken.

    4. Website & documentation

    http://www.proftpd.org/ is the primary source for all information about the project including documentation and security alerts. There are a number of geographic mirror sites, see the mirror pages on www.proftpd.org for more details or try www.<isocode>.proftpd.org (ie www.uk.proftpd.org).

    Helping with documentation

    Writing documentation is time consuming and requires some work but it's not actually difficult. Look through the directive list shipped with the source and package builds of ProFTPD and see what needs work. Check the source code to ensure that the context is correct by grepping through the source code looking for something like

    CHECK_CONF(cmd,CONF_ROOT|CONF_VIRTUAL|CONF_ANON|CONF_GLOBAL)
                  

    to figure out where the directive is valid (server config, <VirtualHost>, <Anonymous>, <Global> for the above example). Once you think you understand what it does, test, play, break (if possible).

    Then either submit a plain text update via the bug reporting system or a patch against the docbook/sgml source (available from CVS on sourceforge (Project: pdd)

    5. Bug reporting

    Bug reports should be made via http://bugs.proftpd.org/ which uses the bugzilla tracking system. Patches should be attached to the appropriate bug and not mailed directly to the mailing lists or any given team member.

    6. I've found a security hole

    Please report all security problems with the code to before releasing the information into the public domain. It would be appreciated if you give the core team a few days to put together a patch and/or new release to address the issue.

    Please adhere to the proceedures and timescales given in the RF Policy document http://www.wiretrip.net/rfp/policy.html, this will give the core development team a chance to get a fix or workaround in place before the problem becomes fully public domain.

    7. Downloading

    There are two main methods of getting the software. Downloading a compressed tarball or rpm (there is also a Debian package available in the main distribution) from proftpd.org or from a mirror site, alternatively if you wish to run the latest bleeding edge code then collecting from the cvs server is the best method.

    Mirror sites

    There is a complete and maintained list of ftp mirror sites available from http://www.proftpd.org/download.html

    CVS

    cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.proftp.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/proftp login (Hit Enter when prompted for a password.)

    Then do:

    cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.proftp.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/proftp -z3 co proftpd

    To obtain the latest/greatest updates, just hop into the proftpd directory and do: cvs update

    A couple of sites generate downloadable tarballs of the latest CVS code to make obtaining the test code easier.

    8. Mailing lists

    There are a number of mailing lists for ProFTPD

    Announce

    proftpd-announce@proftpd.org

    This is a very low traffic list where only ProFTPD announcements/changes will be announced. Subscribe by sending a message to with "subscribe" in the subject.

    Web interface: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/proftp-announce

    Users

    proftp-user@proftpd.org

    This is intended to the the user support channel for the software, in most likelihood this is going to be a high traffic list and slightly chatty. Please read the FAQ, the documentation and the list archives before posting a question.

    Subscribe by sending a message to with "subscribe" in the subject.

    Web interface: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/proftp-user

    Development

    proftpd-devel@proftpd.org

    This list is intended for discussion of development-related issues of ProFTPD, and feature design. It is NOT intended to be a "user help" group.

    Subscribe by sending a message to with "subscribe" in the subject.

    Web interface: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/proftp-devel

    Archives

    The mailing list archives can be found at:

    Unsubscribing

    Before posting to any of the lists or mailing the list admins please try and remove yourself first. Either by emailing <listname>-request@lists.sourceforge.net with the subject "unsubscribe" or visiting the web interface and unsubscribing from there.

    I've (lost / never had) a password to the interface. Easy, enter the address you are subscribed to the list as into the form and hit the "email me my password" button.

    9. Copyright Issues

    The software is currently distributed under the GNU General Public License (version 2 or later) as published by the Free Software Foundation. Copyright is held by Public Flood Software.