how to use .htaccess to protect website directory

how to use .htaccess to password protect an entire website or a single directory

This guide has been written to help simplify protecting an admin directory or an entire website.

• First steps:

  Run the following commands in a terminal. (assuming you have already installed an apache2 server)

  
        sudo apt update
        sudo apt install apache2-utils
        

• Next, create a .htpasswd file, this can be in any directory, but a good idea is to put it in /etc/apache2/

  This command will ask you to supply a password, and confirm it of course.

  the last part of the command is used to make a username.

  
        sudo htpasswd -c /etc/apache2/.htpasswd admin
        

  Drop the -c flag if you wish to add more users.

• Next step is to create a .htaccess file for the directory(s) that you wish to protect with username and password authentication.

  Edit the Virtual Host definition, found in the /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf file.

  
        sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf
        

  You should see something similar to bellow code:

  
        <VirtualHost *:80>
          ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
          DocumentRoot /var/www/html
          ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
          CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
  
        </VirtualHost>
        

  Now add the following lines:

  
          <VirtualHost *:80>
            ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
            DocumentRoot /var/www/html
            ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
            CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
  
            <Directory "/var/www/html">
              AuthType Basic
              AuthName "Restricted Content"
              AuthUserFile /etc/apache2/.htpasswd
              Require valid-user
            </Directory>
          </VirtualHost>
        

  ctrl+x then y then return to save the file, now restart apache server:

  
          sudo service apache2 restart
          

Thats it! Following the same basic methods, you could protect any directory or the entire website.

Thanks for reading! =)

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