Found it: The UserDir module in Apache2 defaults to public_html. So ~studentname was being directed to /Users/studentname/public_html. Which doesn't exist in any of the users' folders.
What does exist is /Users/studentname/Sites, so I just added this line to the httpd.conf:
UserDir Sites
...and it's working perfectly now. Awesome!
Many thanks to @bmike for pointing me in the right direction.
The best way to do this is to create a chroot jail for the user. I'll clean up the answer here when I get home but I posted the solution on my blog.
https://thefragens.com/chrootd-sftp-on-mac-os-x-server/
Below are most of the instruction from the above post.
First, you should create the new user in Workgroup Admin and either assign them access privileges for SSH via Server Admin or assign them to a group that has SSH access privileges. Further discussion is below.
From the Terminal, start off right.
sudo cp /etc/sshd_config /etc/sshd_config.bkup
sudo chown root /
sudo chmod 755 /
sudo mkdir -p /chroot/user/scratchpad
sudo chown -R root /chroot
sudo chown user /chroot/user/scratchpad
sudo chmod -R 755 /chroot
Every additional new user added will then be something along the lines of the following.
sudo mkdir -p /chroot/user2/scratchpad
sudo chown root /chroot/user2
sudo chown user2 /chroot/user2/scratchpad
sudo chmod -R 755 /chroot/user2
Every folder it the path to the chroot jail must be owned by root. I don't think it matters what group the folder is in. What I did above was to
- backup
/etc/sshd_config
- change ownership of the root directory to
root
- change permissions of the root directory to 755
- create a chroot folder
- create a user folder inside the chroot folder
- create a folder inside the user folder that user can modify
- set ownership and permissions
Now to edit /etc/sshd_config to the following.
#Subsystem sftp /usr/libexec/sftp-server
Subsystem sftp internal-sftp
Match User user
X11Forwarding no
AllowTcpForwarding no
ForceCommand internal-sftp
ChrootDirectory /chroot/user
This creates a chroot jail that when the user logs in will drop them into the folder /chroot/user, in that folder is a folder they can add things to /chroot/user/scratchpad.
If you want to create a Group in Workgroup Admin for 'Chroot Users' then add the new users that you created in Workgroup Admin to the Group you won't have to keep editing the /etc/sshd_config file. Instead of the above, add the following. Make sure you add the 'Chroot Users' group to the SSH access ACL in Server Admin.
Match Group chrootusers
X11Forwarding no
AllowTcpForwarding no
ForceCommand internal-sftp
ChrootDirectory /chroot/%u
To test whether the above is working, issue the following from the terminal.
$ sftp user@domain.com
Password:
sftp>
Best Answer
Yes, it's certainly possible, but you'll need a bit of scripting knowledge to do it entirely. I wish I had a more elegant solution to edit things in place, but here's ham-fisted option if no one has a more surgical option.
I typically use
slapcatto dump the current user details to a text file and then process is using perl or whatever other tool you want. Since it's one file, even TextEdit can do a search/replace. By putting the users in a group, you can specify that in slapcat.At this point, I'd convert that text file into the import format that server app wants - see it's help guide - Server Help: Create a file to import users or groups (or click this after pasting it locally to your Mac
help://bookmark='https://help.apple.com/serverapp/mac/2.2/help/index.html?localePath=English.lproj#apd41051F16-D4B7-464F-BD1C-0CBEDF7CA29A')At this point you could delete the affected records and re-introduce them with the correct home directories.