Access files outside a chroot'ed environment?

I need to setup some users to access our server. I thought the most secure way to allow them access was to setup a chroot'ed jail for them to log into.

But I need them to access a few select directories that are outside the chroot'ed environment. Apparently I can't use symlinks for this. What is the best approach? Can a chroot'ed environment not be used for this purpose?

Solution 1:

This is a place where a bind mount will do what you want.

Solution 2:

If it's on the same filesystem and it's individual files, hardlinks will work.

Softlinks will not work: the main purpose of a chroot'ed jail is that users can't get out to access files that aren't inside there.

You can use cp -lr to duplicate a directory tree with each file being a hardlink to the same underlying file, but that won't immediately pick up renames/moves, new files or deletes.

I think @SvenW has the best idea: move the directory into the chroot area and make the current location a symlink to the version inside the chroot.