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Python FTP server library provides a high-level portable interface to easily
write very efficient, scalable and asynchronous FTP servers with Python. It is
the most complete RFC-959_ FTP server implementation available for the
Python_ programming language.

Features

Extremely lightweight, fast and scalable (see
why <https://github.com/giampaolo/pyftpdlib/issues/203>__ and
benchmarks_).
Uses sendfile(2) (see pysendfile <https://github.com/giampaolo/pysendfile>__)
system call for uploads (Linux only).
Uses epoll() / kqueue() / select() to handle concurrency
asynchronously.
...But can optionally skip to a multiple thread / process_ model (as in:
you'll be free to block or use slow filesystems).
Portable: entirely written in pure Python.
Supports FTPS (RFC-4217), IPv6 (RFC-2428), Unicode file
names (RFC-2640), MLSD/MLST commands (RFC-3659).
Support for virtual users and virtual filesystem.
Flexible system of "authorizers" able to manage both "virtual" and
"real" users on on both
UNIX <https://pyftpdlib.readthedocs.io/en/latest/tutorial.html#unix-ftp-server>__
and
Windows <https://pyftpdlib.readthedocs.io/en/latest/tutorial.html#windows-ftp-server>__.

Performance

Despite being written in an interpreted language, pyftpdlib has transfer rates
comparable or superior to common UNIX FTP servers written in C. It usually
tends to scale better (see benchmarks) because whereas vsftpd and proftpd
use multiple processes to achieve concurrency, pyftpdlib only uses one (see
the C10K problem).

pyftpdlib vs. proftpd 1.3.4

pyftpdlib vs. vsftpd 2.3.5

For more benchmarks see here <https://pyftpdlib.readthedocs.io/en/latest/benchmarks.html>__.

Command line usage

Start an anonymous FTP server on port 2121:

.. code-block:: sh

$ python3 -m pyftpdlib
[I 2024-06-23 13:49:35] >>> starting FTP server on 0.0.0.0:2121, pid=763634 <<<

Same but with write permissions (useful to setup a quick and dirty file sharing server):

.. code-block:: sh

$ python3 -m pyftpdlib --write
[I 2024-06-23 13:49:35] >>> starting FTP server on 0.0.0.0:2121, pid=763641 <<<

Also see CLI doc <https://pyftpdlib.readthedocs.io/en/latest/cli.html>__
for more command line examples.

API usage

.. code-block:: python

>>> from pyftpdlib.authorizers import DummyAuthorizer
>>> from pyftpdlib.handlers import FTPHandler
>>> from pyftpdlib.servers import FTPServer
>>>
>>> authorizer = DummyAuthorizer()
>>> authorizer.add_user("user", "12345", "/home/giampaolo", perm="elradfmwMT")
>>> authorizer.add_anonymous("/home/nobody")
>>>
>>> handler = FTPHandler
>>> handler.authorizer = authorizer
>>>
>>> server = FTPServer(("127.0.0.1", 21), handler)
>>> server.serve_forever()
[I 13-02-19 10:55:42] >>> starting FTP server on 127.0.0.1:21 <<<
[I 13-02-19 10:55:42] poller: <class 'pyftpdlib.ioloop.Epoll'>
[I 13-02-19 10:55:42] masquerade (NAT) address: None
[I 13-02-19 10:55:42] passive ports: None
[I 13-02-19 10:55:42] use sendfile(2): True
[I 13-02-19 10:55:45] 127.0.0.1:34178-[] FTP session opened (connect)
[I 13-02-19 10:55:48] 127.0.0.1:34178-[user] USER 'user' logged in.
[I 13-02-19 10:56:27] 127.0.0.1:34179-[user] RETR /home/giampaolo/.vimrc completed=1 bytes=1700 seconds=0.001
[I 13-02-19 10:56:39] 127.0.0.1:34179-[user] FTP session closed (disconnect).

For other code samples read the tutorial <https://pyftpdlib.readthedocs.io/en/latest/tutorial.html>__

Donate

A lot of time and effort went into making pyftpdlib as it is right now.
If you feel pyftpdlib is useful to you or your business and want to support its
future development please consider donating_ me some money.

.. _benchmarks: https://pyftpdlib.readthedocs.io/en/latest/benchmarks.html
.. _Documentation: https://pyftpdlib.readthedocs.io
.. _donating: https://gmpy.dev/donate
.. _Download: https://pypi.org/project/pyftpdlib/
.. _Home: https://github.com/giampaolo/pyftpdlib
.. _Mailing list: https://groups.google.com/group/pyftpdlib/topics
.. _multiple thread / process: https://pyftpdlib.readthedocs.io/en/latest/tutorial.html#changing-the-concurrency-model
.. _Python: https://www.python.org/
.. _RFC-2428: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc2428
.. _RFC-2640: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc2640
.. _RFC-3659: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc3659
.. _RFC-4217: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc4217
.. _RFC-959: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc959.html
.. _the C10K problem: http://www.kegel.com/c10k.html
.. _What's new: https://github.com/giampaolo/pyftpdlib/blob/master/HISTORY.rst

giampaolo/pyftpdlib