HOWTO: Setup restricted directories on lighttpd

Restricted directories in lightttpd will be setup using mod_auth package and htpasswd.



if you don't already have htpasswd installed on your box do a apt-get

* apt-get install apache2-utils


Create password file

* htpasswd -c -m /etc/lighttpd/htpasswd

(Default encryption scheme is MD5)


Modify Lighttpd Config file

* vi /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf

Add mod_auth on server.modules


server.modules              = (
            "mod_access",
            "mod_alias",
            "mod_accesslog",
            "mod_compress",
            "mod_auth"
}

Add following authorization module configurations

auth.backend = "htpasswd"

auth.backend.htpasswd.userfile = "/etc/lighttpd/htpasswd"

auth.require = ( "/directory-to-be-protected/" => (

                        "method" => "basic",

                        "realm" => "Access restricted to authorized users only",

                        "require" => "valid-user"

                )

)

Reload lighttpd configuration

/etc/init.d/lighttpd reload