AuthUserFile Directive

AuthUserFile file-path

The AuthUserFile directive sets the name of a textual file containing the list of users and passwords for user authentication. File-path is the path to the user file. If it is not absolute, it is treated as relative to the ServerRoot.

Each line of the user file contains a username followed by a colon, followed by the encrypted password. If the same user ID is defined multiple times, mod_authn_file will use the first occurrence to verify the password.

The encrypted password format depends on which authentication frontend (e.g. mod_auth_basic or mod_auth_digest) is being used. See Password Formats for more information.

For mod_auth_basic, use the utility htpasswd which is installed as part of the binary distribution, or which can be found in src/support. See the man page for more details. In short:

Create a password file Filename with username as the initial ID. It will prompt for the password:

htpasswd -c Filename username

Add or modify username2 in the password file Filename:

htpasswd Filename username2

Note that searching large text files is very inefficient; AuthDBMUserFile should be used instead.

For mod_auth_digest, use htdigest instead. Note that you cannot mix user data for Digest Authentication and Basic Authentication within the same file.