Refused connection to FTP when using docker-compose instead of docker run

[Nicolai Bjerre Pedersen]

I have a docker-compose.yml looking like this

version: "3"
services: 
  ftpd_server:
    image: stilliard/pure-ftpd:hardened
    ports: 
      - "21"
      - "30000-30009"
    env_file: ftpd.env

with ftpd.env like this

PUBLICHOST=localhost
ADDED_FLAGS=-d -d

But then I get this error

❯ ftp -p localhost 21
ftp: connect: Connection refuse

If I use docker run then I can connect just fine

docker run -d --name ftpd_server -p 21:21 -p 30000-30009:30000-30009 -e "ADDED_FLAGS=-d -d" stilliard/pure-ftpd:hardened

Any idea why that is?

[Andrew Stilliard]

Hi @mr-bjerre

It might be worth checking the ports are mapping correctly, you can see this I believe in the output from docker-compose ps.

You might need to change them to:

    ports: 
      - "21:21"
      - "30000-30009:30000-30009"

Alternatively you could check the docker-compose logs output for the container.

Hope this helps.

[Nicolai Bjerre Pedersen]

Yeah just realized right now. You beat me to it though - damn quick reply. Thanks a bunch!

[Nicolai Bjerre Pedersen]

I do have another question though but maybe it's not the right place to ask though.

I've created a VM instance in Google Cloud using Container-Optimized OS. Then I run

docker run --name ftpd_server -p 21:21 -p 30000-30009:30000-30009 -e "ADDED_FLAGS=-d -d" -e FTP_USER_NAME=user -e FTP_USER_PASS=pass -e FTP_USER_HOME=/home/user stilliard/pure-ftpd:hardened

which starts the server. Then I connect from my local machine

ftp -p IP-ADDRESS 21

and enter the credentials. Everything is fine until now but when I try to put SOME-FILE then I get

ftp> put 56_17171_wc8964.xml 
local: 56_17171_wc8964.xml remote: 56_17171_wc8964.xml
227 Entering Passive Mode (127,0,0,1,117,56)
ftp: connect: Connection refused

Any idea? I've added firewall rules to allow connection on port 21 and 30000-30009

[Andrew Stilliard]

Hi @mr-bjerre are you still setting the publichost env variable?

[Nicolai Bjerre Pedersen]

To be honest I’m not exactly sure what that environment variable does. I’m tried setting it to localhost and to nothing

[Andrew Stilliard]

No worries, it's the host / ip address of where the pure-ftpd instance is.
It's needed for passive mode to work correctly.

Try setting it as the ip address you're connecting to, hope it helps.

[Nicolai Bjerre Pedersen]

You solved my misery! Thanks a lot! @stilliard