Sysadmin SFTP question

Normal pure-ftpd virtual ftp user generated for new nginx ghost sites should have ftp access. You can create 2nd user via same process at Pure-FTPD Virtual FTP Users - CentminMod.com LEMP Nginx web stack for CentOS under recreate user section. Then delete the user after access is no longer needed

 

Why sftp? pure-ftpd virtual ftp user is done over explicit TLS not plain text

There's no way not give sftp in automated way without giving access to all nginx sites on the server due to how nginx on centminmod is setup if you want what the dev is working on to be read and served via nginx/php

 

php can do FTP via explicit TLS as well PHP: ftp_ssl_connect - Manual

does he need live verification/work on the files or is it just upload and you then work on the files ? as sftp would have user permissions other than nginx user/group so nginx wouldn't be able to read the files uploaded by the sftp user. So you can create sftp user chroot'd and say upload to /home/chroot/username/public owned by username and then you copy the files over to /home/nginx/domain/domain.com/public and chown/chmod the right permissions for your site.

there's other manual ways to do it but they will break Centmin Mod's nginx automated routines so while the site would work, centmin.sh menu, letsencrypt and other nginx related routines may break.

basically it's complicated as there is no chroot support in Centmin Mod as per official FAQ item 2

Recommended approach when you have 3rd parties needing access, is to setup a 2nd test staging VPS server with copy of your live site and files/databases and give devs access to that with separate logins from your live site server. That way they can work on test staging VPS and test site without touching your live site.

 

Probably - staging test copy of your site on another server. Recommended either way as you don't want 3rd parties messing up your live server! What script is it?