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List:       linux-isp
Subject:    Re: Definitive virtual wu-ftpd version???
From:       "Michael Wood" <wood () kingsley ! co ! za>
Date:       1999-03-26 12:36:52
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Hi

-----Original Message-----
From: T.Pospisek's MailLists <tpo2@spin.ch>
To: dks@spies.com <dks@spies.com>
Cc: linuxisp@friendly.jeffnet.org <linuxisp@friendly.jeffnet.org>
Date: Friday, March 26, 1999 2:05 AM
Subject: Re: Definitive virtual wu-ftpd version???


>On 22 Mar, dk smith wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> Can anyone provide definitive information about the version (and download
>> site) of the wu-ftpd program that allows for true "virtual" anonymous
ftp?
>
>I have not read the RFCs so I might be wrong, but as far as I know you
>---don't--- transmit the hostname of where you want to connect to when
>you open a ftp session (it's only IP based!). That means there is --no
>way-- to have --truely-- virtual ftps such as http has. You can have
>a machine that serves multiple ftp servers on multiple IPs though. OK,
>someone tell me I'm wrong please.

HTTP supports sending the "Host" header, so there are two ways to have
virtual hosts with HTTP:
    1)  IP based
        a)  You have one server listening on multiple
            IP addresses and distinguishing between
            them (Apache can do this), or
        b)  you have a bunch of servers each listening
            on one of the IP addresses.
    2)  Host header based.
        The server listens on all the IP addresses/
        interfaces but doesn't distinguish between
        them.  It looks at the Host header and serves
        up the correct page/whatever based on that.
        (Apache can do this too.)

With FTP, you only have options 1a and 1b.

Wu-ftpd supports 1a.  Any FTP server that runs from something like inetd can
do 1b, since you can use an inetd-list daemon that starts up a different
program based on the IP address someone connects to (or the same program
with different options.)  AFAIK, xinetd can do this.

I don't know which version of Wu-ftpd do and which don't support virtual
hosts, but I'm sure the version that came with RedHat 4.1 supported it (I
got it working a while ago on a RH4.1 box) and I see no reason for them to
have dropped support for it.

Just read the ftpaccess and related man pages.

Hope this helps :)

--
Michael Wood
wood@kingsley.co.za

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