Apache Cookbook, 2nd Edition

6.7. Managing .htpasswd Files

Problem

You wish to create password files for use with Basic HTTP authentication.

Solution

Use the htpasswd utility to create your password file, as in Table 6-1.

Table 6-1. Managing password files with htpasswd

Command	Action
% htpasswd -cuser.pass waldo	Create a new password file called user.pass with this one new entry for user waldo. Will prompt for password.
% htpasswd user.pass ralph	Add an entry for user ralph in password file user.pass. Will prompt for password.
% htpasswd -b user.pass ralph mydogspot	Add a user ralph to password file user.pass with password mydogspot.

Or, use the Perl module Apache::Htpasswd to manage the file programmatically:

use Apache::Htpasswd;
$pass = new Apache::Htpasswd("/usr/local/apache/passwords/user.pass") or
    die "Couldn't open password file.";

# Add an entry    
$pass->htpasswd("waldo", "emerson");

# Delete entry
$pass->htDelete("waldo");

Discussion

The htpasswd utility, which comes with Apache, is located in the bin subdirectory.

Tip

On some third-party distributions of Apache, the htpasswd program has been copied into a directory in your path, but ordinarily it will not be in your path; you will either have to put it there, or provide the full path to the program in order to run it, such as /usr/local/apache/bin/htpasswd.

The first line of the Solution creates a new password file at the specified location. That is, in the example given, it creates a new password file called user.pass, containing a username and password for a user ...