Date: Fri, 29 Jan 1999 15:30:28 -0500 From: Mark Conway Wirt <mark@intrepid.net> To: Casper <casper@acc.am>, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Cc: freebsd-isp@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Service providing for virtual users Message-ID: <19990129153028.F25277@intrepid.net> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.04.9901292151520.26863-100000@lemming.acc.am>; from Casper on Fri, Jan 29, 1999 at 09:57:48PM %2B0400 References: <Pine.BSF.4.04.9901292151520.26863-100000@lemming.acc.am>
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On Fri, Jan 29, 1999 at 09:57:48PM +0400, Casper wrote: > Hello all! > > Are there any program product to provide FTP/WWW/mail/POP3 services > without creating users on Unix machine? > > So i need to have list (database) of virtual users without shells and UIDs > , but they'll able to upload and access to their homepages on server ? > AFAIK, there isn't an integrated way of doing what you want to do. Mail is fairly easy. Qmail supports the concept of a virtual user, provided that you use a POP client that understands the the virtual user structure -- see www.qmail.org for more information. WWW/FTP is more problematical. In reality, a web server doesn't care about user ID's (provided your not using "~" paths), the real rub is getting the pages uploaded. There are a few options, and all of them have weaknesses. First, if you use wu-ftp, you can create ftp accounts of type guest. Now, if you do this, you *will* have user accounts on the system, but these can be chrooted and pointed to a non-loggable shell (which still must be in /etc/shells), but it will limit the user's access to your disk. They won't be able to log in, and in FTP transactions they will only have access to the portion of the disk (though the chroot) that you define. Another (horrible) option is to use the FrontPage extensions. FrontPage can be set up to use virtual users, but this forces the user to use FP, with is a Bad Idea (tm). Maybe someone on the list knows of other options for the uploading of pages. People are working on standards-based methods for uploading pages via http, but I don't think they are ready for prime time. Once they are, there's nothing preventing people from creating virtual-user aware clients.... --Mark -- To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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