hello all


i am in need of password protecting a folder on my apache web server. how can i set it up to ask for user and password before the user is granted access to the folder?

There's more than one way to do it, but one of the simplest is to add the following to your Apache config file:

Then create the htpasswd file, and add at least one user to it (as root):
This file should be outside of the directories available from the web (I'm assuming here that your document root is /var/www/htdocs - modify as necessary). You would need to have mod_auth enabled.

Note that Basic authentication is not secure (all credentials are transmitted as plain text). There is also AuthType digest (implemented in mod_auth_digest), which hashes the credentials before sending, though this is not so well supported by browsers and a little more complex.

+1 on digest authentication. It's not much more effort than basic, and it's more secure.

Carefully read the documentation and post back if you run into issues.

ok ......i added this to the apache config

<Directory "/var/www/html/music">
AuthType Basic
AuthName "My music Directory"
AuthUserFile "/var/www/htpasswd"
Require valid-user
</Directory>

and that part works with no problem, buti need help with the auth part... i made the .htpasswd file and put it in a htpasswd folder located at /var/www/htpasswd but wont auth . the user is music and this is what the file looks like.

htpasswd -c /var/www/htpasswd music

what am i doing wrong?


BTW this is on Fedora 8

You probably needed

htpasswd -c /var/www/htpasswd music password

But are you saying you put that line in a file called /var/www/htpasswd/.htpasswd? htpasswd is a command to create apassword file (or add users, etc). See man htpasswd.

arrrrrrg , i am so confused...i am thinking i have this wrong

htpasswd -c /var/www/htpasswd music

this is the link

www.clickerpower.net/music

If you want to create an authorized user "music" with password "password", the command

htpasswd -c /var/www/htpasswd music password

will create a file /var/www/htpassword containing user and password information for "music". Your authentication against /var/www/htpasswd should then work (or if it doesn't, the problem is somewhere else).

Edit - if you've created a directory called /var/www/htpasswd, you should probably get rid of it first, since htpasswd will try to create a file with the same name and fail.

ok then where does this line go ?

htpasswd -c /var/www/htpasswd music password


i made a folder called /htpasswd and put in in the /var/www/



sorry hang in there with me i will gett it soon

That line is a command that you type from the terminal - it doesn't go into a file. It's like "ls" or "cd" commands.

You don't want a folder (directory) called htpasswd in /var/www - delete it. The command above will create a file of that name itself (that's what the -c option does - it stands for "create the following file").

From the command line in a terminal sesion, type "man htpasswd" to see what I mean - type "q" to quit.

ok this is what i got



[root@clickerpower ~]# htpasswd -c /var/www/htpasswd music welcome
Usage:
htpasswd [-cmdpsD] passwordfile username
htpasswd -b[cmdpsD] passwordfile username password

htpasswd -n[mdps] username
htpasswd -nb[mdps] username password
-c Create a new file.
-n Don't update file; display results on stdout.
-m Force MD5 encryption of the password.
-d Force CRYPT encryption of the password (default).
-p Do not encrypt the password (plaintext).
-s Force SHA encryption of the password.
-b Use the password from the command line rather than prompting for it.
-D Delete the specified user.
On Windows, NetWare and TPF systems the '-m' flag is used by default.
On all other systems, the '-p' flag will probably not work.




didnt seem to create the file

Make that

htpasswd -bc /var/www/htpasswd music welcome

as given by the message above.

if you just trying to share music best to use something that will stream it for you also and allow you to stream http://ampache.org/

ok i did the command and this is what i got

[root@clickerpower ~]# htpasswd -bc /var/www/htpasswd music *********
Adding password for user music


it worked ....i had to change the path in the config i had a trailing /

Good job guys!