Ever wanted each user on your server to have their own web directory? I wanted users on my server to have access to the public_html directory in their home directory so that they could display content at http://www.mydomain.com/~USERNAME. How do you do this?

1. Edit /etc/apache2/apache2.conf
2. Find the section that looks like this:

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#UserDir is now a module #UserDir public_html #UserDir disabled root   #<Directory /home/*/public_html> # AllowOverride FileInfo AuthConfig Limit # Options Indexes SymLinksIfOwnerMatch IncludesNoExec #</Directory>

3. Make it look like this:
   

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   #UserDir is now a module UserDir public_html #UserDir disabled root   <Directory /home/*/public_html> AllowOverride FileInfo AuthConfig Limit Options Indexes SymLinksIfOwnerMatch IncludesNoExec </Directory>

4. Sit back and relish in your own glory knowing that you have just accomplished something done today!

How did I figure this out? Click here.

For anyone who wants to do this, the steps are as follows:

• Edit /etc/apach2/sites-available/default
• Look for the line "AllowOverride" in the section <Directory /var/www>
• Change the line from "AllowOverride None" to "AllowOverride All"
• Change to the directory you wish to password protect
• Create a .htaccess file. The contents of mine is shown below. The only truly important line is AuthUserFile. This parameter should contain the path to the file containing your usernames/passwords. You should be able to figure out what everything else is on your own.
• Create the .htpasswd file in the directory of your choosing with the following command:

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sudo htpasswd -c /path/to/.htpasswd username

My .htaccess file:

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AuthUserFile /var/www/path/to/site/.htpasswd
AuthName "Please Log In"
AuthGroupFile /dev/null
AuthType Basic
<Limit GET POST PUT>
    Require valid-user
<Limit>

While upgrading Apache on Mac OS X 10.4 I got the following error:

Cannot use an external APR-util with the bundled APR

The solution - Add this to configure options:

--with-included-apr

This issue is also addressed at the Apache Site