Apache, aliases, htdocs & dynamic directories

[MrEyes]

Hello all,

As this is a first post I apologise for any cardinal rules that I might break

I have Apache 2.x running on a windows box that is serving pages from C:\Apache\HTDOCS. In the conf file I have specified an alias to another directory (C:\AppLogs\) by using the following lines :

Alias /AppLogs/ "C:/AppLogs/"
<Directory "C:/AppLogs">
    Options Indexes MultiViews
    AllowOverride None
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
</Directory>

The C:\AppLogs directory is created/destroyed by another application that runs on the server so sometimes this directory will not exist.

Now this all works fine (I can live with the 404 errors when the directory doesnt exist), but I need to password protect this directory using htaccess.

My understanding is that I need to place a .htaccess & .htpasswd file into this directory, but as mentioned above this directory is dynamic and the application that works on it isnt capable of generating these files.

So the question is : Is there anyway I can specify password protection for that alias directory without placing anything into it?

[loman]

I never worked with apache/windows so far, but I suppose the same rules apply.
You can put the config in your httpd.conf like:
<directory c:/applog>
AuthUserFile c:/.htpasswd
AuthName Something
AuthType Basic
require valid-user
</directory>

the .htpasswd file needs to be outside of applog so that
you won't have to recreate it after the directory gets deleted.

[MrEyes]

Based on your post I have found a solution :

I have added this to the httpd.conf file

Alias /AppLogs/ "C:/AppLogs/"
<Directory "C:/AppLogs">
    Options Indexes MultiViews
    AllowOverride None
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
    AuthName "Log Viewer Login"
    AuthType Basic
    AuthUserFile "c:/apachessl/conf/passwd.txt"
    require valid-user 
</Directory>

"c:/apachessl/conf/passwd.txt" is my password file generated by the htpasswd tool

Apparently this is the recommended method of perform authentication if you have access to the conf file as it is less intensive