README.controls

Controls
--------

A new functionality called Controls was added in ProFTPD 1.2.10rc1.

Controls is a feature that provides a way for system administrators to
communicate directly with a running proftpd daemon, making it possible to do
on-the-fly configuration changes and other capabilities.  This feature
includes a program called `ftpdctl', for communicating with the daemon from
the command line, and an API that third-party modules can use to extend the
Control commands available to `ftpdctl'.  Note, however, that this
functionality is only available if proftpd is run in standalone mode
(i.e. "ServerType standalone"); proftpd daemons run via inetd/xinetd cannot
support this feature.

To enable support for Controls, use the --enable-ctrls configure option:

  ./configure --enable-ctrls ...

This enables support for the Controls API in the core engine, and causes
the userland program `ftpdctl' to be functional.  It also causes the
mod_ctrls module to be automatically compiled into proftpd (hence you should
NOT use both --enable-ctrls and --with-modules=mod_ctrls).

The mod_ctrls module provides some basic ftpdctl commands:

  help
  insctrl
  lsctrl
  rmctrl

Online documentation for these commands can currently be found here:

  http://www.castaglia.org/proftpd/modules/mod_ctrls.html

Additional modules that make use of Controls have been added to the contrib/
area that extend the number of ftpdctl commands.  For example, to use
the mod_ctrls_admin module, you would add it to your --with-modules
configure option, in addition to enabling Controls support:

  ./configure --enable-ctrls --with-modules=mod_ctrls_admin ...

More information on the mod_ctrls_admin module can be found in the HTML
documentation for that module, which can be found in the contrib/ directory
as well as online:

  http://www.castaglia.org/proftpd/modules/mod_ctrls_admin.html

As always, please report any bugs or problems with the new Controls
functionality to ProFTPD's bug tracking system:

  http://bugs.proftpd.org