## ProFTPD module `mod_lang`

Internalization and Localization
The `mod_lang` module is ProFTPD's module for handling the LANG and OPTS UTF8 commands, in support of RFC 2640. The `mod_lang` module also supports character sets other than UTF8, for those sites which do not require RFC2640 support, but do use character sets other than ASCII. This module is contained in the `mod_lang.c` file for ProFTPD 1.3.x, and is compiled in whenever the `--enable-nls` configure option is used. Installation instructions are discussed here. Examples of using `mod_lang` for various encodings and character sets can be seen here.

The most current version of `mod_lang` can be found in the ProFTPD source distribution:

      http://www.proftpd.org/

## Directives

- LangDefault
- LangEngine
- LangPath
- UseEncoding

## LangDefault

Syntax: LangDefault language
Default: LangDefault en_US
Context: "server config", `<VirtualHost>`, `<Global>`
Module: mod_lang
Compatibility: 1.3.1rc1

The `LangDefault` directive is used to specify the default language of specific server configuration. Note that the specified language must be listed in the output from:

      $ locale -a

Example:

      <IfModule mod_lang.c>
        # Set the default to be Italian
        LangDefault it_IT
      </IfModule>

## LangEngine

Syntax: LangEngine on|off
Default: LangEngine on
Context: "server config", `<VirtualHost>`, `<Global>`
Module: mod_lang
Compatibility: 1.3.1rc1

The `LangEngine` directive enables or disables the module's handling of the LANG command. If it is set to off this module does no localization of responses.

Note that setting `LangEngine` to off also keeps `proftpd` from advertisting "UTF8" in its `FEAT` response. As required by RFC 2640, `proftpd` can only show "UTF8" in response to a `FEAT` command if the `LANG` command is also supported. Hence why it is the `LangEngine` directive, and not `UseUTF8`, which controls the appearance of "UTF8".

## LangPath

Syntax: LangPath path
Default: None
Context: "server config"
Module: mod_lang
Compatibility: 1.3.1rc1

The `LangPath` directive is used to configure an alternative directory from which `mod_lang` will load locale files. By default, `mod_lang` uses $prefix/`locale/`, where $prefix is where you installed `proftpd`, e.g. `/usr/local/`.

The path parameter must be an absolute path.

Example:

      LangPath /etc/proftpd/locale

Example:

      LangPath /path/to/ftpd/locale

## UseEncoding

Syntax: UseEncoding on|off|local-charset client-charset
Default: None
Context: "server config", `<VirtualHost>`, `<Global>`
Module: mod_lang
Compatibility: 1.3.2rc1

The `UseEncoding` directive is used to explicitly configure which character sets should be used for encoding. By default, the `mod_lang` will automatically discover the local character set, and will use UTF8 for the client character set. The module will also allow the use of UTF8 encoding to be changed by clients using the OPTS UTF8 command (as per RFC2640). However, if the `UseEncoding` directive is explicitly used to indicate the character sets to use (or not use), then any OPTS UTF8 commands used by clients will be refused.

For example, to disable all use of encoding, use the following in your `proftpd.conf`:

      UseEncoding off

Similarly, to enable use of UTF8 encoding and to not allow clients to change the use of UTF8, you would use:

      UseEncoding on

In addition to the on|off parameters, the `UseEncoding` directive allows administrators to specify exactly which character sets to use locally (i.e. for paths on local disks) and for dealing with clients. One such usage this way might look like:

      UseEncoding koi8-r cp1251

For a full list of the character sets which are supported, use:

      $ iconv --list

## Installation

The `mod_lang` module is distributed with ProFTPD. To enable use of NLS (Natural Language Support) in your `proftpd` daemon, use the `--enable-nls` configure option:

      ./configure --enable-nls
      make
      make install

This option causes `mod_lang` to be compiled into `proftpd`.

## Usage

One common request of `proftpd` is to properly handle Cyrillic characters in file and directory names. The usual character sets which contain Cyrillic characters use the same codes as used for Telnet control codes, unfortunately. RFC959 (which defines FTP) mandates that the Telnet control codes be supported in FTP implementations.

The `mod_lang` module, however, can be used to deal with this situation. If the UseEncoding directive is used to translate between local and client character sets, and the client character set is one of the known Cyrillic character sets, then `proftpd` will disable support of the Telnet control codes.

To make a long explanation short, if you want to use Cyrillic characters in paths with `proftpd`, compile your `proftpd` using the `--enable-nls` configure option (to enable the use of `mod_lang`), then use something like the following in your `proftpd.conf`:

      <IfModule mod_lang.c>
        UseEncoding utf8 cp1251
      </IfModule>

The current list of character sets for which Telnet code support is disabled is listed below; the names are not case-sensitive:

- cp866
- cp1251
- iso-8859-1
- koi8-r
- windows-1251

Frequently Asked Questions

Question: When I upload a file with special characters (e.g. umlauts, accents, cedillas, etc), the special characters are turned into '?' on the server. What's wrong?
Answer: There are a couple of things to check when this happens.

First, make sure that your `proftpd` has been compiled with NLS support. Type `proftpd -V`, and make sure you see:

      + NLS support

appear in the output.

Next, make sure that the `LANG` environment variable is set before starting the server. Special characters require that UTF8 or ISO-8859-1 be used, thus you might use things like:

      # export LANG=de_DE.utf8
      # export LANG=fr_FR.ISO8859-1

Last, check that any routers/firewalls/NAT between the clients and the server are not interfering. ProFTPD lists "UTF8" in its `FEAT` response data; many FTP clients use the `OPTS UTF8 ON` command to inform the server that UTF8 filenames will be sent. Some routers, firewalls, and NATs have been known to filter both the `FEAT` response and/or block commands like `OPTS UTF8`, thus interfering with the protocol and causing encoding problems.

Author: $Author: castaglia $
Last Updated: $Date: 2010/08/10 17:39:08 $

© Copyright 2006-2010 TJ Saunders
All Rights Reserved