VSFTPd + User/Group Config

[CTeague]

Well to start off, I've been a Windows guy pretty much all my life. Any job I have had to date always delt with Windows in some way, shape, or form. I wasn't able to get any Linux experience through the process and now it's kicking me in the rear.

I was recently hired by a certain organization to handle simple networking and general PC troubleshooting issues; simple enough. It's just a part time job of mine to get me through college a little easier. Now as some key members have left, I'm the last hope....literally. I'm in charge of the entire organization all of a sudden; including the network infrastructure, clients (windows / linux), and rolling out all sorts of projects that need to be done.

Question: Could someone give me a detailed overview of how to create a structured FTP with specific privledges for certain users / groups?

Ie.

/var/ftp (Read only by group)
/var/ftp/user (Full permissions by user)
/var/ftp/pub (Full permissions by group)

Home directories will be set to /var/ftp/user and a symbolic link Pub link will be placed in each one.

How do I go about setting up users? Chmoding / Chowning it? How do I set up the groups correctly so the users join it?

I know I use /sbin/nologin (Using Fedora Core 3) so they cannot login using SSH or anything; these accounts will be just for FTP right now. I need the ability to add on rights to a mail server in a few weeks though.

Using VSFTPd, how do I make it so when the user logs in; they are forced to stay in their home directory? I don't want them able to view the entire darn Linux file system.

I have tired and got some things to work and some didn't, I just want to know how to do it correctly before I open up port 21 on the firewall and the upper ranges for the passive transfers.

Thanks!

[SilentRage]

Sure, we can do that. First, we need to setup the ftp root directory with the following line:

local_root=/var/ftp

Then, we'll enable chroot, cause you don't want those people browsing through your entire file system.

chroot_local_user=YES

If the useradd wasn't told to create the home directory, then you can do things manually with the following commands:

mkdir /var/ftp/user
chown user:group /var/ftp/user
chmod 700 /var/ftp/user

And, that should be it I guess.