The main configuration file for VSFTPD is ‘/etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf‘. When verbose logging is enabled you need to disable the normal logging option, i.e xferlog_std_format=NO.
Below are the 2 options, that come in picture while configuring the logging in vsftpd.
- xferlog_std_format — When enabled in conjunction with xferlog_enable, the log is written to the file specified in the xferlog_file directive (/var/log/xferlog by default)
- log_ftp_protocol — When enabled in conjunction with xferlog_enable and with xferlog_std_format set to NO, all FTP commands and responses are logged in /var/log/vsftpd.log.
1. By default the logging is enabled through the below entry.
# vi /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf xferlog_std_format=YES
2. However this will show only file activity. If you require more verbose logging, including connections and commands you will need to add the line below:
# vi /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf log_ftp_protocol=YES
3. As discussed earlier, set the parameter xferlog_std_format as NO, to disable normal logging.
# vi /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf xferlog_std_format=YES
Note: When this is enabled, all FTP requests and responses are logged. This is very useful for debugging. You may comment out this line once you are done with the debugging.