Best free ftp client for mac

ProFTPD is an FTP server. It is Free and open-source software, since the high Sierra version of MacOS, Apple has removed the default FTP server. However, FTP remains heavily used for connectivity, In this tutorial we will cover the steps needed to install and configure the FTP server software ProFTPd in macOS.

Installing ProFTPD server

The pro-ftpd package can be installed with the following command:

brew install inetutils
brew install proftpd

Configuring ProFTPD

Prerequisites:

1. Create a user in ur Mac
2. Validate the user with the command “ id <username>”

After creating a user just follow below commands to add a user

cd /usr/local/Cellar/proftpd/1.3.6c/.bottle/etc/

Creating Password for the user

ftpasswd — passwd — name=ftpuser — uid=502 — home=/Users/ftpuser/ftp/ — shell=/bin/bash

Updating the proftpd configuration

1. Create a log file

mkdir /usr/local/var/log/proftpd
touch /usr/local/var/log/proftpd/proftpd.log

2. Update the following lines in the file proftpd.conf

Adding a log file is done via the directive SystemLog

SystemLog /usr/local/var/log/proftpd/proftpd.log

Uncomment the line DefaultRoot ~ and link the users’ file using the directive AuthUserFile with the file created by the utility ftpasswd.

AuthUserFile /usr/local/Cellar/proftpd/1.3.6c/.bottle/etc/ftpd.passwd

StartUP

Create a bash script with the following content & execute to start the FTP client

#!/bin/bash
export PROFTDHOME=/usr/local/Cellar/proftpd
export PROFTD_ETC=/usr/local/Cellar/proftpd/1.3.6c/.bottle/etc
export PROFTD_BIN=/usr/local/Cellar/proftpd/1.3.6c/sbin
sudo $PROFTD_BIN/proftpd -c $PROFTD_ETC/proftpd.conf

Validation:

Validate the ftp client installed on our machine, provide the userName and password that we created during the configuration.

ftp localhost

Enjoy connecting the FTP client from another network using the public IP of your machine using the same username & password that we configured.