Password protecting folders in Apache 2 web servers

[[DRuG]NikT]

This is one of those seemingly simple topics that has most linux geeks a bit stumped until they do some indepth reading on it.. but it's a pretty important procedure - especially for game modders, since we often want to do limited releases of betas etc.

As such, recently I was discussing how I have been locking down folders, and thought everyone could benefit from what I posted.. assuming they have admin access to a linux web server.

Hey..

the .htaccess is only part of it, if you google the same howto I did (dont have link any more), it detailed the changes you needed to make to the httpd.conf as well... here's a brief one I made..

For each directory you want to secure, you need to adjust /etc/apache2/apache2.conf

Add the following, z being the directory you want to secure.

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<Directory /var/www/z>
   AllowOverride All
</Directory>

Create a file in the dir you want to protect called .htaccess - the .htpasswd file can be made later in any folder you like, but it must be specified here.

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AuthName "Secure Area"
AuthType Basic
AuthUserFile /home/gta/.htpasswd
require valid-user

Now the tricky bit...

To create an initial .htpasswd file, use the -c tag.
The syntax is: htpasswd passwordfilename user (add -c if you're creating the file)

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# htpasswd -c /var/www/.htpasswd suroboy
New password:
Re-type new password:
Adding password for user suroboy

To create new users in the same file, simply drop the -c.

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# htpasswd /var/www/html/.htpasswd guest
New password:
Re-type new password:
Adding password for user guest

That's it! Enjoy 8)

Of course, you'll need to restart apache...

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# apache2ctl restart