25.2.2.4.5. The mod_auth_dbm and mod_auth_db Modules

Apache HTTP Server 1.3 supported two authentication modules, mod_auth_db and mod_auth_dbm, which used Berkeley Databases and DBM databases respectively. These modules have been combined into a single module named mod_auth_dbm in Apache HTTP Server 2.0, which can access several different database formats. To migrate from mod_auth_db, configuration files should be adjusted by replacing AuthDBUserFile and AuthDBGroupFile with the mod_auth_dbm equivalents, AuthDBMUserFile and AuthDBMGroupFile. Also, the directive AuthDBMType DB must be added to indicate the type of database file in use.

The following example shows a sample mod_auth_db configuration for Apache HTTP Server 1.3:

<Location /private/>
  AuthType Basic
  AuthName "My Private Files"
  AuthDBUserFile /var/www/authdb
  require valid-user
</Location>

To migrate this setting to version 2.0 of Apache HTTP Server, use the following structure:

<Location /private/>
  AuthType Basic
  AuthName "My Private Files"
  AuthDBMUserFile /var/www/authdb
  AuthDBMType DB
  require valid-user
</Location>

Note that the AuthDBMUserFile directive can also be used in .htaccess files.

The dbmmanage Perl script, used to manipulate username and password databases, has been replaced by htdbm in Apache HTTP Server 2.0. The htdbm program offers equivalent functionality and, like mod_auth_dbm, can operate a variety of database formats; the -T option can be used on the command line to specify the format to use.

Table 25.1, “Migrating from dbmmanage to htdbm” shows how to migrate from a DBM-format database to htdbm format using dbmmanage.

The -m and -s options work with both dbmmanage and htdbm, enabling the use of the MD5 or SHA1 algorithms for hashing passwords, respectively.

When creating a new database with htdbm, the -c option must be used.

For more on this topic, refer to the following documentation on the Apache Software Foundation's website: