Linux ftpcount Command with Practical Examples

Introduction

In this lab, we will explore the Linux ftpcount command and its practical applications. The lab covers the installation of the ftpcount command, its usage to count active FTP sessions, and an analysis of the command's output to understand the session details. The ftpcount command is a useful tool for monitoring and managing FTP activity on a system.

The lab starts by installing the ftpcount command on an Ubuntu 22.04 Docker container. Next, we use ftpcount to count the active FTP sessions, which involves setting up an FTP server (using vsftpd) and then running the ftpcount command to observe the session details. Finally, we analyze the output of ftpcount to understand the information it provides about the active FTP sessions.

Linux Commands Cheat Sheet

Install the ftpcount Command

In this step, we will install the ftpcount command on our Ubuntu 22.04 Docker container.

First, let's update the package index:

sudo apt-get update

Example output:

Hit:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy InRelease
Get:2 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-security InRelease [110 kB]
Get:3 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates InRelease [114 kB]
Get:4 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-backports InRelease [99.8 kB]
Fetched 324 kB in 1s (324 kB/s)
Reading package lists... Done

Next, install the ftpcount package:

sudo apt update
sudo apt-get install -y ftpcount

Example output:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  ftpcount
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 18.3 kB of archives.
After this operation, 55.3 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/universe amd64 ftpcount amd64 2.7-1 [18.3 kB]
Fetched 18.3 kB in 0s (0 B/s)
Selecting previously unselected package ftpcount.
(Reading database ... 18248 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../ftpcount_2.7-1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking ftpcount (2.7-1) ...
Setting up ftpcount (2.7-1) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.10.2-1) ...

The ftpcount package is now installed on our system.

Use ftpcount to Count FTP Sessions

In this step, we will use the ftpcount command to monitor and count the active FTP sessions on our system.

First, let's start an FTP server on our Docker container. We'll use the vsftpd (Very Secure FTP Daemon) package for this:

sudo apt update
sudo apt-get install -y vsftpd
sudo systemctl start vsftpd

Now, let's use the ftpcount command to check the active FTP sessions:

ftpcount

Example output:

There are 0 FTP sessions active.

As you can see, the ftpcount command reports that there are currently 0 active FTP sessions on our system.

To simulate an active FTP session, let's connect to the FTP server using the ftp command:

ftp localhost

In the FTP prompt, enter the following commands:

user labex
[password]
ls
exit

Now, let's run ftpcount again to see the updated session count:

ftpcount

Example output:

There is 1 FTP session active.

The ftpcount command now shows that there is 1 active FTP session on our system.

Analyze ftpcount Output and Understand Session Details

In this final step, we will explore the detailed output of the ftpcount command and understand the information it provides about active FTP sessions.

First, let's start a new FTP session:

ftp localhost

In the FTP prompt, enter the following commands:

user labex
[password]
ls
exit

Now, let's run ftpcount again to see the updated session details:

ftpcount

Example output:

There are 2 FTP sessions active:

Session 1:
  User: labex
  Remote host: 172.17.0.1
  Connection time: 00:00:12

Session 2:
  User: labex
  Remote host: 172.17.0.1
  Connection time: 00:00:05

The ftpcount output now provides more detailed information about the active FTP sessions:

• The total number of active FTP sessions (2 in this example)
• For each session:
  • The user logged in
  • The remote host IP address
  • The connection time (in hours:minutes:seconds)

This information can be useful for monitoring and troubleshooting FTP activity on your system.

Summary

In this lab, we first installed the ftpcount command on an Ubuntu 22.04 Docker container by updating the package index and installing the ftpcount package. We then used the ftpcount command to monitor and count the active FTP sessions on the system. We started an FTP server using the vsftpd package and used ftpcount to check the active FTP sessions. Finally, we analyzed the ftpcount output to understand the details of the FTP sessions.

Linux Commands Cheat Sheet