pure-ftpd Connection refused localhost on high sierra

When I try connect my local FTP server I have received the following error message:

$ ftp localhost
ftp: connect to address ::1: Connection refused
ftp: Trying 127.0.0.1 ...
ftp: connect to address 127.0.0.1: Connection refused
ftp: no response from host

I have installed pure-ftpd on my High Sierra MacOS just like this:

$ brew install pure-ftpd

And after this I have started it:

$ brew services list | grep ftp
proftpd    stopped               
pure-ftpd  started alexandre1202 /Users/alexandre1202/Library/LaunchAgents/homebrew.mxcl.pure-ftpd.plist
vsftpd     stopped               

I also have tried with vsftpd and profptd but the issue is the same.

As we can see above the service is started but when I also have checked local connections and 21 port is not ESTABLISHED or LISTEN

# netstat -f inet -tan | grep 21

In addition I have checked by any ftp server on system

alemacbookpro:~ root# ps aux | grep ftp
root             60696   0.0  0.0  4279600      0 s002  R     6:22PM   0:00.00 grep ftp
alemacbookpro:~ root# 

And if I try connect using the following, we can see that there is no LISTEN service:

# telnet localhost 21
Trying ::1...
Connection failed: Connection refused
Trying 127.0.0.1...
telnet: Unable to connect to remote host: Connection refused

I apreciate any help to figure out why I can not use FTP server locally.

Solution 1:

Problem has fixed after the following steps:

1) I have stopped the service

$ brew services stop pure-ftpd

2) I have remove to service

$ brew remove pure-ftpd

3) I have updated brew

$ brew upgrade

4) I have cleaned it

$ brew cleanup

5) I have reinstalled it

$ brew install pure-ftpd

6) I have created the /etc/pam.d/pure-ftpd following lines using root privilege:

# pure-ftpd: auth account password session
auth       required       pam_opendirectory.so
account    required       pam_permit.so
password   required       pam_deny.so
session    required       pam_permit.so

7) Set pam configuration

sudo /usr/local/sbin/pure-ftpd -lpam -B

8) I have restart the service

$ brew services restart pure-ftpd

9) And finally the connection has successfully!

$ ftp localhost
Trying ::1...
Connected to localhost.
220---------- Welcome to Pure-FTPd [privsep] [TLS] ----------
220-You are user number 1 of 50 allowed.
220-Local time is now 20:42. Server port: 21.
220 You will be disconnected after 15 minutes of inactivity.
Name (localhost:alexandre1202): 
331 User alexandre1202 OK. Password required
Password: 
230 OK. Current directory is /Users/alexandre1202
Remote system type is UNIX.
Using binary mode to transfer files.
ftp>