authentication in apache for a subdirectory

[Simon Andrews]

Ankush Grover wrote:
> Hey,
> 
>   I want to configure authentication for a particular directory and
> subdirectories below that directory.
> 
> I have written these entries in httpd.conf ,but authentication is not working.
> 
> <Directory  /var/www/html/open/hms/modules>
>   AllowOverride   AuthConfig

Probably not what you want - this allows overrides in .htaccess files - 
you're specifying your authentication directly.  Shouldn't hurt though.

>   AuthType   Basic
>   AuthName  "Access to the Modules"
>   AuthUserFile   /opt/htpasswd/passwd.users
>   Require        valid-user
>    </Directory>

The only thing we add to our configs are the access permission 
directives, but I don't know if these are mandatory.  Did you make sure 
that your httpd server was restarted after making the changes?  They 
won't have any effect otherwise.

I'll give you an example of a config we use here which definitely works. 
  Rather than appending this to httpd.conf it's probably better to put 
each one in a separate file in /etc/httpd/conf.d as that tends to be 
easier to maintain.  Remember that you MUST restart (or reload) httpd 
after making these changes for them to have any effect.


<Directory /data/whatever>
         AllowOverride None
         Options None
         Order allow,deny
         Allow from all
         Require valid-user
         AuthType Basic
         AuthName "Protected Area"
         AuthUserFile /data/whatever/.htpasswd
</Directory>

Hope this helps

Simon.