How do I password protect a directory?
The method you use for password protecting a directory depends on your server. If you are on *nix/apache, you can use basic authentication. This can be set up with or without telnet access.
There are two server-side ways of password protecting:
- .htaccess
- CGI-type methods (or PHP/JSP/servlet/ASP authentication)
.htaccess method
If you want a single username and password for the site then you want the following:
- Make sure your Apache configuration (usually /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf) has the line:
AccessFileName .htaccess
- Put a .htaccess file in the directory that contains the files and subdirectories you want protected containing:
AuthName "Magic Website" AuthType Basic AuthUserFile /path/to/passwd #(see below) Require valid-user
Use htpasswd to create a passwd file (preferably in a non-web accessible directory):
htpasswd -c /path/to/passwd username
where username is the username you want to add a password for, e.g. htpasswd -c /path/to/passwd magic.
(When adding further users, drop the '-c', and type 'htpasswd --help' or 'man htpasswd' for further help)