2 <!DOCTYPE modulesynopsis SYSTEM "../style/modulesynopsis.dtd">
3 <?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="../style/manual.en.xsl"?>
4 <!-- $LastChangedRevision$ -->
7 Copyright 2002-2005 The Apache Software Foundation or its licensors, as
10 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
11 you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
12 You may obtain a copy of the License at
14 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
16 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
17 distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
18 WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
19 See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
20 limitations under the License.
23 <modulesynopsis metafile="mod_authz_dbm.xml.meta">
25 <name>mod_authz_dbm</name>
26 <description>Group authorization using DBM files</description>
27 <status>Extension</status>
28 <sourcefile>mod_authz_dbm.c</sourcefile>
29 <identifier>authz_dbm_module</identifier>
30 <compatibility>Available in Apache 2.1 and later</compatibility>
33 <p>This module provides authorization capabilities so that
34 authenticated users can be allowed or denied access to portions
35 of the web site by group membership. Similar functionality is
36 provided by <module>mod_authz_groupfile</module>.</p>
39 <seealso><directive module="core">Require</directive></seealso>
42 <name>AuthDBMGroupFile</name>
43 <description>Sets the name of the database file containing the list
44 of user groups for authorization</description>
45 <syntax>AuthDBMGroupFile <var>file-path</var></syntax>
46 <contextlist><context>directory</context><context>.htaccess</context>
48 <override>AuthConfig</override>
51 <p>The <directive>AuthDBMGroupFile</directive> directive sets the
52 name of a DBM file containing the list of user groups for user
53 authorization. <var>File-path</var> is the absolute path to the
56 <p>The group file is keyed on the username. The value for a
57 user is a comma-separated list of the groups to which the users
58 belongs. There must be no whitespace within the value, and it
59 must never contain any colons.</p>
61 <note type="warning"><title>Security</title>
62 <p>Make sure that the <directive>AuthDBMGroupFile</directive> is
63 stored outside the document tree of the web-server. Do
64 <strong>not</strong> put it in the directory that it protects.
65 Otherwise, clients will be able to download the
66 <directive>AuthDBMGroupFile</directive> unless otherwise
70 <p>Combining Group and Password DBM files: In some cases it is
71 easier to manage a single database which contains both the
72 password and group details for each user. This simplifies any
73 support programs that need to be written: they now only have to
74 deal with writing to and locking a single DBM file. This can be
75 accomplished by first setting the group and password files to
76 point to the same DBM:</p>
79 AuthDBMGroupFile /www/userbase<br />
80 AuthDBMUserFile /www/userbase
83 <p>The key for the single DBM is the username. The value consists
87 Encrypted Password : List of Groups [ : (ignored) ]
90 <p>The password section contains the encrypted
91 password as before. This is followed by a colon and the comma
92 separated list of groups. Other data may optionally be left in the
93 DBM file after another colon; it is ignored by the authorization
94 module. This is what www.telescope.org uses for its combined
95 password and group database.</p>
100 <name>AuthzDBMType</name>
101 <description>Sets the type of database file that is used to
102 store list of user groups</description>
103 <syntax>AuthzDBMType default|SDBM|GDBM|NDBM|DB</syntax>
104 <default>AuthzDBMType default</default>
105 <contextlist><context>directory</context><context>.htaccess</context>
107 <override>AuthConfig</override>
110 <p>Sets the type of database file that is used to store the list
112 The default database type is determined at compile time. The
113 availability of other types of database files also depends on
114 <a href="../install.html#dbm">compile-time settings</a>.</p>
116 <p>It is crucial that whatever program you use to create your group
117 files is configured to use the same type of database.</p>