Password protect Website via htaccess

Sometimes you don’t want to habe your site visible to public. One way of managing that is to use settings in the .htaccess file.

1. Create the .htpasswd file

a) For the entire website

cd ~/example.com

b) or just a subdirectory

cd ~/example.com/members

Check your full path to the domain or subdirectory:

pwd /home/username/example.com 

Create the actual .htpasswd file with access for guest1

htpasswd -c /home/username/example.com/.htpasswd guest1

q) The htpasswd process will ask for a password, enter and confirm it. It will look like that:

guest1:$apr1$bkS4zPQl$SyGLA9oP75L5uM5GHpe9A2

b) confirm or correct the permission to 644

chmod 644 .htpasswd

Create or modify the .htaccess file

The .htaccess and .htpasswd files need to be in the same directory

a) Entire Website

#Protect Directory
AuthName "Dialog prompt"
AuthType Basic
AuthUserFile /home/username/example.com/.htpasswd
Require valid-user

b) a single file

#Protect single file
<Files admin.php>
AuthName "Dialog prompt"
AuthType Basic
AuthUserFile /home/username/example.com/.htpasswd
Require valid-user
</Files>

c) Multiple files

#Protect multiple files
<FilesMatch "^(admin|staff).php$">
AuthName "Dialog prompt"
AuthType Basic
AuthUserFile /home/username/example.com/.htpasswd
Require valid-user
</FilesMatch>