Custom WordPress auto update via FTP

When I originally migrated my blog off GoDaddy, one of the things that stopped functioning was the WordPress auto update feature. Luckily, I was able to easily overcome this using my own custom FTP settings. For its simplicity, I used vsftpd.

Install:

yum install vsftpd
chkconfig vsftpd on

Configure vsftpd to jail FTP users to their home directory in /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf:

chroot_local_user=YES

Restart vftpd:

/etc/init.d/vsftpd restart

Now, I’ll create the user that will be used to download and install the WordPress auto updates:

useradd -d /PATH/TO/WORDPRESS/SITE -G apache -s /sbin/nologin apache_ftp_user
passwd apache_ftp_user

Before applying an update, update your permissions:

chown -R apache_ftp_user:apache /PATH/TO/WORDPRESS/SITE 

Now use apache_ftp_user username and password on the WordPress FTP connection wizard page:

Tags: [ wordpress ]

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