scp with system user?

Question

I have a user that was created this way:

sudo adduser --system --home=/opt/someone --group someone

This user does not have login, but when I login to server with my own user, I can change to that user using sudo su - someone -s /bin/bash. And it is OK.

But sometimes I need to transfer files remotely to someone user home directory, but I can't use that user because it does not have a login. The long way is to scp files to my own home directory, then login with my own user, then change to someone and copy those files from my home directory to someone home directory. But that is very annoying to do it.

Maybe there is some better alternative where I could directly scp files using someone user?

Answer 1

It is possible to add users with a shell that will only allow utilities such as scp, rsync and other nice utilities: rssh

I used it on my webhosting service way back, and it did the trick. Users were unable to log in and get a shell, but they were still able to upload stuff properly.

Add them as normal users, but give them rssh as a shell with chsh, and you're good. That way, you can easily upload files as their users, or let them upload themselves.