How To Set Up WebDAV With Apache2 On Mandriva 2009.1

Version 1.0
Author: Falko Timme <ft [at] falkotimme [dot] com>
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Last edited 10/02/2009

This guide explains how to set up WebDAV with Apache2 on a Mandriva 2009.1 server. WebDAV stands for Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning and is a set of extensions to the HTTP protocol that allow users to directly edit files on the Apache server so that they do not need to be downloaded/uploaded via FTP. Of course, WebDAV can also be used to upload and download files.

I do not issue any guarantee that this will work for you!

1 Preliminary Note

I'm using a Mandriva 2009.1 server with the IP address 192.168.0.100 here.

2 Installing WebDAV

First, we update our package database:

urpmi.update -a

Next we install Apache and the Apache WebDAV module:

urpmi apache apache-mod_dav

Next we open /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf and uncomment the following three lines in the LoadModule section (make sure you delete the following string at the end of these lines because otherwise Apache might complain about a syntax error: -> available in the apache-mod_dav package):

vi /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

[...]
LoadModule dav_module modules/mod_dav.so
[...]
LoadModule dav_fs_module modules/mod_dav_fs.so
LoadModule dav_lock_module modules/mod_dav_lock.so
[...]

Then restart Apache:

/etc/init.d/httpd restart

3 Creating A Virtual Host

I will now create a default Apache vhost in the directory /var/www/web1/web. For this purpose, I will add a default vhost at the end of /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf. If you already have a vhost for which you'd like to enable WebDAV, you must adjust this tutorial to your situation.

First, we create the directory /var/www/web1/web and make the Apache user and group (apache) the owner of that directory:

mkdir -p /var/www/web1/web
chown apache:apache /var/www/web1/web

Then add the new vhost at the end of /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf:

vi /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

[...]
NameVirtualHost *:80
<VirtualHost *:80>
        ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost

        DocumentRoot /var/www/web1/web/
        <Directory /var/www/web1/web/>
                Options Indexes MultiViews
                AllowOverride None
                Order allow,deny
                allow from all
        </Directory>

</VirtualHost>

Then reload Apache:

/etc/init.d/httpd reload

4 Configure The Virtual Host For WebDAV

Now we create the WebDAV password file /var/www/web1/passwd.dav with the user test (the -c switch creates the file if it does not exist):

htpasswd -c /var/www/web1/passwd.dav test

You will be asked to type in a password for the user test.

(Please don't use the -c switch if /var/www/web1/passwd.dav is already existing because this will recreate the file from scratch, meaning you lose all users in that file!)

Now we change the permissions of the /var/www/web1/passwd.dav file so that only root and the members of the apache group can access it:

chown root:apache /var/www/web1/passwd.dav
chmod 640 /var/www/web1/passwd.dav

Now we modify our vhost at the end of /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf and add the following lines to it:

vi /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

[...]
        Alias /webdav /var/www/web1/web

        <Location /webdav>
           DAV On
           AuthType Basic
           AuthName "webdav"
           AuthUserFile /var/www/web1/passwd.dav
           Require valid-user
       </Location>
[...]

The Alias directive makes (together with <Location>) that when you call /webdav, WebDAV is invoked, but you can still access the whole document root of the vhost. All other URLs of that vhost are still "normal" HTTP.

The final vhost should look like this:

[...]
NameVirtualHost *:80
<VirtualHost *:80>
        ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost

        DocumentRoot /var/www/web1/web/
        <Directory /var/www/web1/web/>
                Options Indexes MultiViews
                AllowOverride None
                Order allow,deny
                allow from all
        </Directory>

        Alias /webdav /var/www/web1/web

        <Location /webdav>
           DAV On
           AuthType Basic
           AuthName "webdav"
           AuthUserFile /var/www/web1/passwd.dav
           Require valid-user
       </Location>

</VirtualHost>

Reload Apache afterwards:

/etc/init.d/httpd reload

5 Testing WebDAV

We will now install cadaver, a command-line WebDAV client:

urpmi cadaver

To test if WebDAV works, type:

cadaver http://localhost/webdav/

You should be prompted for a user name. Type in test and then the password for the user test. If all goes well, you should be granted access which means WebDAV is working ok. Type quit to leave the WebDAV shell:

[root@server1 ~]# cadaver http://localhost/webdav/
Authentication required for webdav on server `localhost':
Username: test
Password:
dav:/webdav/> quit
Connection to `localhost' closed.
[root@server1 ~]#