Newb: Desperately need help to password protect a directory SOLVED
 

EDIT:

(Please read the whole thread but I hope this is the solution...)

This is simplicity itself. Only took me just over two weeks ;)

I am running Ubuntu server 8.04 LTS, set up with ISPc3.

I need to protect a folder /var/www/lockthisfolder . I want to use Digest authentication.

I created a directory "lockbydigest" in / to contain the htdigest file.

NOTE: Only use the -c flag the first time you create the htdigest file. Otherwise a new one will be created for you and you will lose the details of the existing users you have set up.

The /var/www/lockthisfolder/.htaccess file contains:
Restart apache
Be sure to do
on the digest file and the .htaccess file.

I think that was all I did! Look through the rest of the thread if something isn't working.

S


Hi,

(Starting this here as it's probably to do with the ISPc3 htaccess file...?)

I urgently need to password protect a directory and seem to be getting things wrong, as usual...

I'm running Ubuntu 8.04 LTS server with ISPc3 running fine.

I need to protect a folder /var/www/lockthisfolder . I want to use Digest authentication.

I created a directory "lockbydigest" in / to contain the htdigest file.

Then I did:

Code:

---

root@mybox:/lockbydigest# htdigest -c digest private myname
Adding password for myname in realm private.
New password:
Re-type new password:
root@mybox:/lockbydigest# ls
digest
root@mybox:/lockbydigest# locate lockthisfolder
/var/www/lockthisfolder
root@mybox:/var/www/lockthisfolder# touch .htaccess
root@mybox:/var/www/lockthisfolder# ls
pma
root@mybox:/var/www/lockthisfolder# ls -a
.  ..  .htaccess  pma
root@mybox:/var/www/lockthisfolder# sudo nano .htaccess
root@mybox:/var/www/lockthisfolder# /etc/init.d/apache2 restart
 * Restarting web server apache2
  ...done.
root@mybox:/var/www/lockthisfolder# exit

---

The /var/www/lockthisfolder/.htaccess file contains:

Code:

---

<Directory /var/www/lockthisfolder>
        AuthType Digest
        AuthName "Private"
        AuthDigestFile /etc/apache2/lockbydigest/digest
        Require user myname
</Directory>

---

Why don't I get a username/password challenge when I go to /var/www/lockthisfolder ?

Thanks as always :-)

S

did you check that .htaccess directive are read by Apache webserver ?
i am referring to the "AllowOverride" setting directive inside apache httpd.conf

look here:
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/mod...#allowoverride

When this directive is set to "None",
then .htaccess files are completely ignored.

prisfeo,

Thanks for chipping in...

ISPc3 relies on Apache directives so I'm sure they must be activated. No?

S

yes,
but pay attention that after regular ispconfig3 installation,
if you look inside /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
you'll see this setting:
"AllowOverride None"

and only in /etc/httpd/conf/sites-available/www.yoursite.com.vhost apache config files there is:
"AllowOverride All"

that "enables" .htaccess "looking" by apache.
so that, check if your "/var/www/lockthisfolder"
is configured inside a httpd virtual host with that AllowOverride setting.

i mean the following:

<Directory /var/www/lockthisfolder>
AllowOverride All
.....
.....
</Directory>

prisfeo,

I'm not quite following...

Do you mean that the .htacess file inside /var/www/lockthisfolder should look like this?:

S

no.
...
as told before, i mean you have to check the apache configuration,
that is related to the "/var/www/lockthisfolder" folder.
is that folder configured inside a virtual host config file ?
if yes, check that configuration..
it's that configuration that must have inside the "Directory" directive
the "AllowOverride All" statement.
i hope to have explained better..(unfortunately i am not english)

How do I know which file that is? I'm guessing it must be tha main /etc/apache2/httpd.conf file...?
I'm guessing not... It's outside the ISPc3 structure, in the root of the /www directory.

My /etc/apache2/httpd.conf file is completely empty. Is that the relevant file? How should it look?

?

No problem! I'm grateful for your help.

S

uhmm..if you tellin that above..i think your apache httpd.conf is not located
like mine (i use Centos) cause it cannot be empty..in Ubuntu maybe
located in /usr/local/apache2 ?
you can do the following find command inside terminal:

find / -iname 'httpd.conf'

mine is located at:
/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

and it's not empty..but it has the "AllowOverride" directive
set to "None" since are the virtual host apache config files that
tune the per-site configurations.(as said before)
..
if you are telling that your folder is "out of the ispc3 struct"
so when you have find the "non-empty" httpd.conf
edit it, and find lines with "AllowOverride" directive
and try to set them to "All"

and after editing do an "apachectl restart"
a try to see if it works as expected

I only seem to have one httpd.conf file, /etc/apache2/httpd.conf, and it's definitely empty.

Is this an Ubuntu quirk?

Is there another file which could do the same job?

Does it have another name in Ubuntu perhaps?

S

maybe /etc/apache2/apache2.conf ? (for debian ...)