HTTP basic authentication - Apache

Method 1) Inside the directory you wish to protect include a .htaccess file with the following content:

AuthUserFile /some/secure/path/outside/the/public/docs/.htpasswd
AuthName "My secure area"
AuthType Basic
Require valid-user

Method 2) In your apache config file add the following:

<Directory /path/to/directory/to/protect/>
 AuthUserFile /some/secure/path/outside/the/public/docs/.htpasswd
 AuthName "My secure area"
 AuthType Basic
 Require valid-user
</Directory>

Now you have configured apache for authentication you need to create a password “databases”. This is a file in a format apache can understand.

You can create it with the htpasswd command:

htpasswd -c /some/secure/path/outside/the/public/docs/.htpasswd myusername

Once you have your password database, if you need to update a users password or add more users you can use the htpasswd command without the -c option, like so:

htpasswd /some/secure/path/outside/the/public/docs/.htpasswd myusername