How do I use the AuthUserDBMFile .htaccess directive?

Support is provided in the Zeus Web Server for using 'dbm' files for user authentication and access control via the .htaccess feature. Dbm files come in a number of different formats but the Zeus Web Server provides support for the ndbm file format as this is substantially standard across platforms.

One of the reasons why you might choose to use dbm is for performance. With some web servers, dbm files are faster than 'flat' htpasswd files. With Zeus Web Server the htpasswd file is cached and hashing is used to search it. It turns out to be faster than using the operating system-provided dbm libraries. So, if you are considering a new deployment, you will find htpasswd files faster than dbm files.

Also, we have become aware of a difficulty with Linux in that the way Perl handles the files is different to the behaviour when called through 'C' libraries. This means that dbm files created or manipulated via Perl are not usable by the Zeus Web Server.

For these two reasons, we recommend that you use AuthUserFile in preference to AuthUserDBMFile. If you would like further guidance or advice on moving from one format to the other, please don't hesitate to contact us.

Content Manager [Administrator] 19 September 2005