How enable ftp to localhost wordpress site?

[Bill Cole]

On 31 Jul 2020, at 20:28, Murray Eisenberg wrote:

> I’ve installed the MacPorts version of apache2 and have a working 
> localhost wordpress site running under apache2.
>
> How to I enable ftp with this, so that I can ftp into the wordpress 
> site? (This is so I can install WordPress plugins.)

If it's running on 'localhost' then you don't need FTP, you can just 
copy the plugins' files to the WordPress tree 
(/opt/local/www/apache2/html/ or a subdirectory of that, depending on 
how you installed WordPress) directly. You may need to adjust ownership 
and/or permissions on that directory or use 'sudo cp' in a Terminal 
session to do the copying. WP plugins typically install in their own 
subdirectory trees under the 'plugins' subdirectory of the WordPress 
root.

> Is there some particular MacPorts port I need to add? and then what do 
> I need to do so it’s available from within the wordpress site?
>
> (WordPress docs don’t deal with this! they just say to use ftp to 
> install the plugins.)

Which is unfortunate, because FTP is a mess security-wise. While one CAN 
make it reasonably safe, doing so narrows the range of clients that work 
with any particular secure setup. If you end up with a WordPress site 
running on a remote system where you need a file transfer facility, you 
are better off using SFTP, which provides a FTP-like client interface 
without the backend that has been evolving organically since the `70s. 
SFTP is a subsystem of OpenSSH, so nearly any modern 
Unix/Linux/BSD/MacOS server that allows remote login supports SFTP by 
default.


-- 
Bill Cole
bill at scconsult.com or billcole at apache.org
(AKA @grumpybozo and many *@billmail.scconsult.com addresses)
Not For Hire (currently)