AuthDBMGroupFile

Syntax: AuthDBMGroupFile filename
Context: directory, .htaccess
Override: AuthConfig
Status: Extension
Module: mod_auth_dbm

The AuthDBMGroupFile directive sets the name of a DBM file containing the list of user groups for user authentication. Filename is the absolute path to the group file.

The group file is keyed on the username. The value for a user is a comma-separated list of the groups to which the users belongs. There must be no whitespace within the value, and it must never contain any colons.

Security: make sure that the AuthDBMGroupFile is stored outside the document tree of the web-server; do not put it in the directory that it protects. Otherwise, clients will be able to download the AuthDBMGroupFile unless otherwise protected.

Combining Group and Password DBM files: In some cases it is easier to manage a single database which contains both the password and group details for each user. This simplifies any support programs that need to be written: they now only have to deal with writing to and locking a single DBM file. This can be accomplished by first setting the group and password files to point to the same DBM:

AuthDBMGroupFile /www/userbase AuthDBMUserFile /www/userbase

The key for the single DBM is the username. The value consists of

Unix Crypt-ed Password : List of Groups [ : (ignored) ]

The password section contains the Unix crypt() password as before. This is followed by a colon and the comma separated list of groups. Other data may optionally be left in the DBM file after another colon; it is ignored by the authentication module. This is what www.telescope.org uses for its combined password and group database.

See also AuthName, AuthType and AuthDBMUserFile.