Chapter 1. Introduction to ProFTPD

1. What is ProFTPD?
2. Website & documentation
3. Bug reporting
4. I've found a security hole
5. Downloading
6. Mailing lists
7. Copyright Issues

1. What is ProFTPD?

ProFTPD is a ftp server written for use on Unix and Unix-a-like operating systems, there is no support for native use under Microsoft Windows.

2. 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).

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.