Question

I am trying to set up Apache authentication for one of my TWiki installs. I have the .htaccess file, and the .htpasswd files set up. I have made the changes to the .htaccess file to point the various variables to the correct directories. The authentication settings from /bin/configure are set to Apache authentication.

When I try to view a page, I get the following error in the Apache error log:

/var/www/twikis/usims/bin/.htaccess: Invalid command '{DataDir}', perhaps mis-spelled or defined by a module not included in the server configuration

I have tried removing the braces and placing a percent (%) in front of the braces but that only changes the error.

I figure I am missing something rather simple here.

Any ideas?

Environment

-- ShawnDevlin - 04 Mar 2006

Answer

If you answer a question - or someone answered one of your questions - please remember to edit the page and set the status to answered. The status selector is below the edit box.

The .htaccess file is an Apache configuration file, whereas you seem to feed it a TWiki configuration.

Usually you run bin/configure from your Browser to set TWiki's directories (like $cfg{DataDir}), which writes the paths to lib/LocalSite.cfg.

In .htaccess, all you need to point to is your .htpasswd file, like:

<Directory "whereever/you/installed/bin">
   AuthType Basic
   AuthName "Authenticated TWiki"
   AuthUserFile /home/haj/public_html/htpasswd.twiki
   <Files viewauth>
       Require valid-user
   </Files>
   <Files edit>
       Require valid-user
   </Files>
...etc
</Directory>

You usually define the .htaccess file for both TWiki and Apache so that while Apache is using it for authentication, TWiki allows changing password from a web interface.

-- HaraldJoerg - 05 Mar 2006