The unauthenticated FTP service allows you to share files with other users,
including those outside Rensselaer. If you would like to make files
publicly available for others to download, place the files in
an appropriately permitted directory and then register that directory.
For example, an individual could create a directory called
public_ftp within their RCS home directory, and then permit it by issuing
the command:
fs sa directory_name system:anyuser rl
(Departments
may place directories under /dept space; for example, /dept/bio/ftp.)
To register a directory, and thereby make its files accessible via anonymous
FTP, at an RCS UNIX prompt enter:
anon_ftp_reg directory_name
You can specify more than one directory name, separating them by spaces.
The directories you register will appear
in the list of registered directories the next day. (Please note that
you can register only those directories to which you have WRITE access.)
To remove a directory from the anon FTP registry, the command is:
anon_ftp_reg -clear directory_name
When you register a directory, the registration process automatically creates an empty file called .anon in that directory; this file gives ``anonymous users" permission to view the files in the directory. Please note, however, that if you create subdirectories under the registered directory, you must manually create an empty .anon file in each subdirectory that you do not register that you want accessible to anonymous users. This also applies to the main directory, if you do not want to register it and make its existence public.
Please note that ``anonymous users" must use the complete path to access your directory, as in cd /home/24/doej/public_ftp.
A place for users outside Rensselaer to ``drop" files no longer exists. If you want someone to send you a file, you must make your individual directory writeable to system:anyuser.