HTPASSWD(1) BSD Reference Manual HTPASSWD(1)
htpasswd - create and update user authentication files
htpasswd [-c] [-d | -l | -m | -p | -s] passwordfile username
htpasswd -b [-c] [-d | -l | -m | -p | -s] passwordfile username password
htpasswd -n [-d | -l | -m | -p | -s] username
htpasswd -bn [-d | -l | -m | -p | -s] username password
htpasswd is used to create and update the flat-files used to store user-
names and password for basic authentication of HTTP users. If htpasswd
cannot access a file, such as not being able to write to the output file
or not being able to read the file in order to update it, it returns an
error status and makes no changes.
Resources available from the httpd(8) Apache web server can be restricted
to just the users listed in the files created by htpasswd. This program
can only manage usernames and passwords stored in a flat-file. It can en-
crypt and display password information for use in other types of data
stores, though. To use a DBM database see dbmmanage(1).
htpasswd encrypts passwords using either a version of MD5 modified for
Apache, the system's crypt(3) routine (the default), or SHA encryption.
Files managed by htpasswd may contain all types of passwords e.g. some
user records may have MD5-encrypted passwords while others in the same
file have passwords encrypted with crypt(3).
This manual page only lists the command line arguments. For details of
the directives necessary to configure user authentication in httpd(8),
see the Apache manual, which can be found in /var/www/htdocs/manual/.
The options are as follows:
-b Use batch mode i.e. get the password from the command
line rather than prompting for it. This option should not
be used, since the password is clearly visible on the
command line.
-c Create the passwordfile. If passwordfile already exists,
it is rewritten and truncated. This option cannot be com-
bined with the -n option.
-d Use DES-based crypt(3) encryption for passwords.
-l Use Blowfish-based crypt(3) encryption for passwords.
This is the default.
-m Use Apache's modified MD5 algorithm for passwords. Pass-
words encrypted with this algorithm are transportable to
any platform (Windows, Unix, BeOS, et cetera) running
Apache 1.3.9 or later.
-n Display the results on standard output rather than updat-
ing a file. This is useful for generating password
records acceptable to Apache for inclusion in non-text
data stores. This option changes the syntax of the com-
mand line, since the passwdfile argument (usually the
first one) is omitted. It cannot be combined with the -c
option.
-p Use plaintext passwords. Although htpasswd supports the
creation of plaintext passwords, httpd(8) will not accept
plaintext passwords on OpenBSD.
-s Use SHA encryption for passwords. Facilitates migration
from/to Netscape servers using the LDAP Directory Inter-
change Format (LDIF).
password The plaintext password to be encrypted and stored in the
file. Only used with the -b flag.
passwordfile Name of the file to contain the username and password. If
-c is given, this file is created if it does not already
exist, or rewritten and truncated if it does exist.
username The username to create or update in passwordfile. If
username does not exist in this file, an entry is added.
If it does exist, the password is changed.
Web password files such as those managed by htpasswd should not be within
the Web server's URI space - that is, although the password files must be
contained within "ServerRoot", they should not be located in
"DocumentRoot".
The htpasswd utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs. The
exit codes returned are:
0 operation completed successfully
1 problem accessing files
2 syntax problem with the command line
3 the password was entered interactively and the verification
entry didn't match
4 the operation was interrupted
5 a value is too long (username, filename, password, or final
computed record)
6 the username contains illegal characters (see the CAVEATS sec-
tion, below)
Add or modify the password for user "jsmith". The user is prompted for
the password. If the file does not exist, htpasswd will do nothing except
return an error:
# htpasswd /var/www/conf/.htpasswd-users jsmith
Create a new file and store a record in it for user "jane", using the MD5
algorithm. The user is prompted for the password. If the file exists and
cannot be read, or cannot be written, it is not altered and htpasswd will
display a message and return an error status:
# htpasswd -cm /var/www/conf/.htpasswd jane
dbmmanage(1), htdigest(1), crypt(3), httpd(8)
The scripts in support/SHA1/ which come with the distribution.
The MD5 algorithm used by htpasswd is specific to Apache software: pass-
words encrypted using it will not be usable with other Web servers.
Usernames are limited to 255 bytes and may not include the character ':'.
MirBSD #10-current March 19, 2008 1