Htaccess guide

Authentication / Password Tutorial

At some point you may want to have a set of web pages that are protected, requiring a username/password to gain access to. This tutorial will show you how to set that up. This is geared towards the Unix Apache/NCSA httpd servers. If you are using another web server, you'll need to check that server's documentation to see how to do this.

Steps to Password-protect a DirectoryFirst, create a subdirectory in your web area. For the sake of this tutorial I'm creating one beneath the toolbox directory, and naming it "secure". Set the permissions on the directory so that it's world readable/executable (so the web server can get to it), then cd into it.

mkdir secure
chmod 755 secure
cd secure

Next you must create a .htaccess file inside the directory you want protected. Make it a new file, and enter the following data. The items in bold are things you will want to change depending on the location of these files and directories on your server.

AuthUserFile /www/jacob/secure/.htpasswd
AuthName Toolbox Example
AuthType Basic
require valid-user

The AuthName is what the user will see when they're prompted for a password - something to the effect of "Enter Authorization for Toolbox Example".

Now you'll have to set up the password file. You'll need to use the htpasswd program. It is included with NCSA and Apache httpd servers, usually in the support subdirectory under the server root (try /usr/local/etc/httpd/support). You can also write your own program to generate encrypted passwords. You just want to have crypt(actual-password) be stored in the file.

Now for every userid you want to add to the password file, enter the following. (the -c is only required the first time; it indicates that you want to create the .htpasswd file).

   htpasswd -c /www/jacob/secure/.htpasswd user1
     [ you're prompted for the password for user1, note: the -c argument means to creat a new file]
   htpasswd <B>/www/jacob/secure/.htpasswd</B> user2
   htpasswd <B>/www/jacob/secure/.htpasswd</B> user3

Be sure to chmod these files (755, or readable by the web server), and now you're set.

Here is an [A href="http://www.genome.ou.edu/secure1/htaccess.html" example file] using the above code to check for security. The username is "jacob" and password is "arch".

For more information and another tutorial, you may also want to consult the [A href="http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/docs/tutorials/user.html" NCSA Mosaic User Authentication Tutorial]. [A href="http://www.cyberport.com/~jacob/index.html" Home]

Also make sure apache has the following loaded

<Directory /www/jacob/secure/>
AllowOverride AuthConfig
</Directory>

Changing php flags / options

And if you want to change php options (Eg put php_flag register_globals 1 in a .htaccess file)

you need to put <Directory /wherever/it/is> AllowOverride Options </Directory>

Rewrite rules

If you want to pattern match anything in the URL, You can not match against url QueryString in pattern of a RewriteRule directive. You can only match against url path ( ie : index.php ) in RewriteRule. Url part after the ? sign is URL QueryString. you will need to match against %{QUERY_STRING} variable in RewriteCond .

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^(.*)Whatever0String
RewriteRule ^ - [G,NC]