ftp with 'virtual' users?

[jae]

i want to share some files with a former co-worker of mine. I figured plain ftp might be simpler and faster for him. I installed vsftpd, but everything I find seems to say that I need to make an user for him on my server. Is this true?

 

[Crusty]

While not bullet proof you can set the login shell to /bin/false so that he can't open a shell on your server. That still gets him SSH access with allows port forwarding and other non-shell related features.

If you're just trying to share a few files with him I would look into using Google Drive or Dropbox, that will be far more palatable to someone with limited computer experience.

 

[Sheep221]

If you don't want to use any specific accounts and passwords for your friend, you still need to create account exactly called "Anonymous" and specify the folder for it. In this case if he types IP/domain of your FTP server he gets in without password and logging in, many web browsers and file managers logon to free FTP servers in anonymous mode by default.

 

[hasu]

pure-ftpd might work as per this:
http://serverfault.com/questions/458328/linux-ftp-server-with-virtual-users