How to password protect a subdirectory in your home page

FILES ON THE WEB SERVER ARE ALWAYS READABLE BY ANYONE WITH A UNIX ACCOUNT (you cannot prevent this). Everything placed here is considered public. (at least to other users)
Your web space is NOT to be used for data storage.
This does not prevent other ME users from accessing the files from unix client machines through NFS shares or from accessing them through the Windows Shares
If your security needs are that great - you should encrypt the content.
All WEB Passwords are sent in the clear and can be snooped.
NOTE: Make sure your htpasswd and htgroup files are under a folder starting with .ht or else someone could fetch them and try to crack the passwords (the web server will not give out files or directories starting with .ht).

NOTE ABOUT PATHS: the webserver sees /my/paulfm:www-menet/public-html/share/passtest/.htauth/ as /homedirs/h/paulfm/public-html/share/passtest/.htauth/
/my/paulfm:www-menet/public-html/share/passtest/.htaccess as /homedirs/h/paulfm/public-html/share/passtest/.htaccess
and /my/paulfm:www-menet/public-html/ as /homedirs/h/paulfm/public-html/.
It is extremely important that all of the files reference things from the web-server's point of view.

MORE COMPLETE PATH INFO

URL Path Unix Client location Real location on Web Server
http://www.me.umn.edu/ /g/www-me/ /data/me/
http://www.menet.umn.edu/ /g/www-menet/ /data/menet/
http://www.menet.umn.edu/~{user}/ /my/{user}:www-menet/public-html/ /homedirs/h/{user}/public-html/

MORE COMPLETE PATH INFO
URL Path	Unix Client location	Real location on Web Server
http://www.me.umn.edu/	/g/www-me/	/data/me/
http://www.menet.umn.edu/	/g/www-menet/	/data/menet/
http://www.menet.umn.edu/~{user}/	/my/{user}:www-menet/public-html/	/homedirs/h/{user}/public-html/

NOTE: use relative paths in web pages or use the Real Location (references should never be made to /g, /home, /h, /my, or /stage).

Step 1: Create a .htaccess file in the directory you wish to protect (make sure to use a unix text editor).

Example (Protect http://www.menet.umn.edu/~paulfm/share/passtest/ ):

	vi /my/paulfm:www-menet/public-html/share/passtest/.htaccess

It should look something like the following:

	AuthType Basic
	AuthUserFile /my/paulfm:www-menet/public-html/share/passtest/.htauth/htpasswd
	AuthGroupFile /my/paulfm:www-menet/public-html/share/passtest/.htauth/htgroup
	AuthName private
	<Limit GET POST>
	require group private
	order allow,deny
	allow from all
	</Limit>

Step 2: Create your htpasswd file with the htpasswd command:

	htpasswd {passwd_file} {user_name}

Example:

	htpasswd -c /my/paulfm:www-menet/public-html/share/passtest/.htauth/htpasswd paulfm
	htpasswd /my/paulfm:www-menet/public-html/share/passtest/.htauth/htpasswd user1
	htpasswd /my/paulfm:www-menet/public-html/share/passtest/.htauth/htpasswd user2
	htpasswd /my/paulfm:www-menet/public-html/share/passtest/.htauth/htpasswd test

It should look something like the following:

	paulfm:NmG46He.uBQAc
	user1:gNm36He9cBabc
	user2:6He9cBabcgNm3
	test:zueokiL.oCm3M

NOTE: the password for the user "test" is "test password" (only the first 8 characters are used "test pas") in case you want to see this at work. http://www.menet.umn.edu/~paulfm/share/passtest/

Step 3: Create your htgroup file (with a unix text editor).
Example:
```
	vi /my/paulfm:www-menet/public-html/share/passtest/.htauth/htgroup
	
```
It should look something like:
```
	private:paulfm user1 user2
	
```
NOTE: The group name "private" needs to match the specified group name in the .htaccess file in the "require group private" line (case sensitive).