[conspire] FileZilla isn't a file manager (but you can use it as one) (was: FTP)

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Paul Zander (paulz at ieee.org):

> I like FileZilla.  It comes in both Linux and M$ versions. 
> 
> I loaded the package.  Didn't work.  I did a little web searching
> which agreed with my notes from previous installs.   
>
> apt-get install vsftpd

> Since Filezilla requires the ftp daemon, why isn't it included in the 
> dependencies?   Anyone want to suggest a different GUI ftp that works
> on multiple platforms?

The first three times I read your question, Paul, I was utterly puzzled:
"Why in Gehenna is Paul installing an ftp daemon?"

After that third parsing effort, and consequent befuddlement, I suddenly
noticed something important:  You hadn't actually articulated what
specific problem you were trying to solve.

Here's my guess:  As an admirer of the FileZilla graphical interface
generally, you are attempting to find a way to use it to move file trees
_within_ your system.

Although that is definitely not FileZilla's targeted use mode -- thus my
and (I believe) other's befuddlement at how you framed the issue as
solving ftp access on your own system -- but the good news is that I can
suggest a good solution.

For the record, the overwhelming use case for FileZIlla is to transfer
files and trees between your graphical-interface machine (Linux, OSX,
MS-Windows) and _remote servers_.  Towards that end, it can be a client
for the antique and unfashionable ftp protocol, for FTP over SSL
protocol (aka 'ftps'), and for sftp protocol.  That is so implicitly
understood to be what it's _for_ that it took me a few minutes to
realise you (probably) are seeking to use it _internally_ within your
LInux machine to move files or file trees around.

Also for the record, the _normal_ class of tool for doing the latter is
a "file manager".

If my guess is wrong, then I'm _really_ confused, and feel welcome to
elucidate.  Assuming I'm correct:

The easy way to solve your problem is to install & enable an ssh daemon
(server program) on the workstation (Linux or MS-Windows) where you wish
to employ FileZilla.  You should logically want to have the ftp daemon 
bound to localhost (the loopback network interface) only, so that it
accepts only local connections.  A sbort general explanation of 'sftp'
is that it's a convenient way of giving ftp-like remote access to file
trees over ssh transport.

Since FileZilla has been around for a long time, the docs for it
primarily stress its use as an ftp client, like it's still 1992.  
According to the docs, it attempts an ftp connection by default, and 
you have to use URI prefix "sftp://" or "ftps://" for the other two 
connection protocols.  See:
https://wiki.filezilla-project.org/FileZilla_Client_Tutorial_(en) , 
under 'Connecting to a server'.

So, connecting to "sftp://localhost" will let you do ssh login (with
whatever username you specify in the Username field.  As is customary
for ssh connections, you will initially see in the files-display window,
after login, the specified username's homedir, like /home/paulz if you 
logged in as username paulz.

Instead of the name 'localhost', you could use whatever other names, in
addition to "localhost", are on the 127.0.0.1 (loopback address) line in
the machine's /etc/hosts file.  Not being a network guy, very likely you
never even look at that file, let your DHCP client software overwrite it
regularly, and disregard it.  That's fine; you don't need to start
paying attention to it.  I'm just pointing it out to you.

Anyway, I hope that will get you started.

Also, you _might_ want to look into file managers for X11 -- but of
course it'll be relatively rare to find ones that also exist and work
identically on MS-Windows.  Maybe those are now common, though.  I
wouldn't know.

Bestiaries here:
https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/File_managers
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/File_manager_functionality


Duncan MacKinnon, I believe, is still a diehard user of 'mc' aka
Midnight Commander, an open source clone of Norton Commander.  It 
has a text user interface.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midnight_Commander

Like most longtime *ix users, I don't personally go for file managers.
I juse use bash and friends (such as rsync as Deirdre and Michael
mentioned).



To answer your posed question, the reason FileZilla doesn't
automatically include the FileZilla ftp daemon is that no, FileZilla
does _not_ require a locally running ftp daemon -- in that its usual and
intended usage model is for connections to remote servers (that of
course would be running one or more of an ftp daemon, an ftp-over-SSL
daemon, or an ssh daemon (thus supporting sftp).

It's nice that FileZilla author Tim Kosse also wrote an ftp daemon, for
the quite rare system administrator who (still) runs one.  However,
there are other good examples of that antiquated genre, such as vsftp
(which you mentioned).  linuxmafia.com runs that, by the way --
something most folks would call eccentric in 2020 (or even 2000).  ftp
has largely gone the way of the dodo.