Webmin FTP User - Create user to view another users folder

Question

So I have a server with Webmin installed and I've succesfully managed to create a user with an ftp group and setup the account in such a way that once they ftp into the site, they can only view their ftp folder...all good.

However I just wondered if there is a way to setup another user, but allow them to access the previous users folder via FTP?

There is an option to choose the home directory when creating the user, but it doesn't list the '/user' folder which is I presume the virtual folder for each an every user that gets created by Webmin (incidentally where exactly on the server do all the files get uploaded to?).

So user_1 has an FTP group and when they login using their ftp details, they see their folder.

user_2 needs to be added so they can ftp into exactly the same folder as user_1.

Many thanks

Answer 1

Let's assume you have something like:

• /shared
• /home/steve
• /home/simon

And you would like for both users Steve and Simon to be able to access /shared then the simplest way would be to create the folder and then assign it an FTP group allowing both users write/read access as required.

Then to have /shared visible when either Simon or Steve login to the FTP, you simply create a symbolic link which basically adds a shortcut in /home/simon/shared. If you want your server to do this automatically when adding a new user then you need to code a script or use custom commands.

Now with all this said... ideally, you should opt to use SFTP rather than FTP, its more secure (SSH keys) and has better functionality, you also get to disable the FTP service entirely.