2.5 Access control file

Description

Create an access control file (.htaccess) in a specific directory to specify an access permission for the directory.

Specify the name of the access control file by using the AccessFileName directive. The default is .htaccess.

You can enable the access controls in the access control file without restarting the web server. However, you need to set the AllowOverride directive in httpsd.conf to the appropriate level that permits overwriting to make the access controls function properly.

If you specify a password file for the access control file, when a user accesses the directory, the user is asked to enter a user name and password.

The access control file (.htaccess) does not need to correspond with the password file (.htpasswd) on a one-to-one basis. You can specify the same password file for the AuthUserFile directive in a different access control file.

Syntax

The syntax of the directive is as follows.

Regular expression:

The following are the regular expressions that can be used for defining the directive:

Code	Functionality	Usage example	Meaning of the usage example
.	Any single character	a...c	a is followed by any 3 characters, and then c. For example, abcdc matches this code.
*	The character right before this code is repeated zero or more times	ab*cd*	For example, ac, abbbbc, and abbbbcd match this example code.
+	The character right before this code is repeated one or more times	ab*c+	For example, abbbc matches this example code, but abbb does not.
?	Whether a character right before this code exists	abbbc?	For example, abbbc and abbb match this example code.
|	A delimiter for options	a|bc|d	a, bc, or d
\	A special character (. ^$*+?|\[](){}) comes right after this code. However, \\\ is used to express \.	\.	For example, . matches this example code.
		\\\	For example, a single character \ matches this example code.
^	The characters after the symbol are at the beginning of the line	^ab	For example, abcde matches this example code.
$	The characters before the symbol are at the end of the line	abc$	For example, aaabc matches this example code.
{m}	The regular expression right before this code is repeated m times	a{5}	For example, aaaaa matches this example code.
{m,}	The regular expression right before this code is repeated m or more times	a{3,}	For example, aaa and aaaa match this example code, but aa does not.
{m,n}	The regular expression right before this code is repeated m or more times, and n or less times	a{3,5}	For example, aaa, aaaa, and aaaaa match this example code. aa and aaaaaa do not match this code.
[character_string]	The character is in the character string#	[abc]* or [a-c]*	For example, aaa, bbb, ccc, cba, and aab match this example code.
[^character_string]	The character is not in the character string	[^0-9]	Any single character other than a numerical character matches this example code.
(character_string)	The character string is grouped	(ab)+	For example, ababab matches this example code, but ababb does not.
		aa(xx|yy)bb	For example, aaxxbb and aayybb match this example code.

#

The following three characters have special meanings in [character_string].

^: Specify this character after the opening square bracket ([) to indicate characters that are not included in the character string.

]: This character is used to indicate the end of the character string.

-: This character is used specify a range.

In addition, backslashes (\) used before these special characters are omitted.

To use characters that have special meanings in [character_string] as normal characters, specify the character as below. Note that special characters other than the following four characters are treated as normal characters.

^: Specify this character anywhere except at the beginning of the character string. Example: [ab^yz]

]: Specify this character at the beginning of the character string. Example: []abxy]

-: Specify this character at the end of the character string. Example: [abxy-]

\: Specify \\\. Example: [\\\abxy]

Path information to be specified in the directive:

For directives that specify the directory name, file name or path name, the path information that can be specified differs depending on the types of directives.

The following are the types of paths. The path information for each directive is explained in each directive.

• Absolute path.

• Relative path from the value specified in the ServerRoot directive (however, note that the ServerRoot directive must be specified in advance).

In addition, you cannot specify directories or files on the network in the path information. You cannot specify directories or files on the file system that uses the network, either.

Comment line:

In the configuration file, add a hash mark (#) to the beginning of the line to make a comment line. However, if you write a character string that begins with a hash mark after the directive is specified, the characters after the hash mark will not be treated as comments.

The following shows an example of specifying a comment line:

• Correct example:

  #Deny from all

  The line beginning with the hash mark is treated as a comment line.

• Incorrect example:

  Deny from all    #comment

  The #comment part will be treated as a value specified for the directive. This will not be treated as a comment.

Notes on specification of IPv6 addresses

To describe the IPv6 address in the directive, enclose the IPv6 address in square brackets ([] ), such as [IPv6_address]. In addition, when writing both the IPv6 address and the port number in the directive, enclose the IPv6 address in square brackets and specify the port number after a colon (:), such as [IPv6_address]:port_number.

However, do not enclose the IPv6 address in square brackets when writing the IPv6 address in the following directives:

• The Allow from directive

• The Deny from directive

• The HWSSetEnvIfIPv6 directive

When you want to specify the IPv6 address for these directives, specify a global unicast address.

Storage location

Directory_to_be_defined_access_permissions

[public_html for user001]
 |
 +-[auth]--+-.htaccess
 |         +-index.html
 |
 +-[test1]-+-.htaccess
 |         +-.htpasswd (user001/test1)
 |         +-index.html
 |         +-[test11]-+-.htaccess
 |         |          +-.htpasswd (user001/test11)
 |         |          +-index.html
 |         |
 |         +-[test12]-+-index.html
 |                    +-[test121]-+-.htaccess
 |                                +-index.html
 |
 +-[test2]-+-.htaccess
           +-.htpasswd (user001/test21,user002/test22,user003/test23)
           +-.groupfile(mygroup:  user001 user002)
           +-index.html