DBMMANAGE2(1)dbmmanage2DBMMANAGE2(1)NAMEdbmmanage2 - Manage user authentication files in DBM format
SYNOPSISdbmmanage2 [ encoding ] filename add|adduser|check|delete|update user-
name [ encpasswd [ group[,group...] [ comment ] ] ]
dbmmanage2 filename view [ username ]
dbmmanage2 filename import
SUMMARYdbmmanage2 is used to create and update the DBM format files used to
store usernames and password for basic authentication of HTTP users via
mod_authn_dbm. Resources available from the Apache HTTP server can be
restricted to just the users listed in the files created by dbmmanage2.
This program can only be used when the usernames are stored in a DBM
file. To use a flat-file database see htpasswd2.
This manual page only lists the command line arguments. For details of
the directives necessary to configure user authentication in httpd2 see
the httpd2 manual, which is part of the Apache distribution or can be
found at http://httpd.apache.org/.
OPTIONS
filename
The filename of the DBM format file. Usually without the exten-
sion .db, .pag, or .dir.
username
The user for which the operations are performed. The username
may not contain a colon (:).
encpasswd
This is the already encrypted password to use for the update and
add commands. You may use a hyphen (-) if you want to get
prompted for the password, but fill in the fields afterwards.
Additionally when using the update command, a period (.) keeps
the original password untouched.
group A group, which the user is member of. A groupname may not con-
tain a colon (:). You may use a hyphen (-) if you don't want to
assign the user to a group, but fill in the comment field. Addi-
tionally when using the update command, a period (.) keeps the
original groups untouched.
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comment
This is the place for your opaque comments about the user, like
realname, mailaddress or such things. The server will ignore
this field.
Encodings
-d crypt encryption (default, except on Win32, Netware)
-m MD5 encryption (default on Win32, Netware)
-s SHA1 encryption
-p plaintext (not recommended)
Commands
add Adds an entry for username to filename using the encrypted pass-
word encpasswd. dbmmanage2 passwords.dat add rbowen foKnt-
nEF3KSXA
adduser
Asks for a password and then adds an entry for username to file-
name. dbmmanage2 passwords.dat adduser krietz
check Asks for a password and then checks if username is in filename
and if it's password matches the specified one. dbmmanage2 pass-
words.dat check rbowen
delete Deletes the username entry from filename. dbmmanage2 pass-
words.dat delete rbowen
import Reads username:password entries (one per line) from STDIN and
adds them to filename. The passwords already have to be crypted.
update Same as the adduser command, except that it makes sure username
already exists in filename. dbmmanage2 passwords.dat update
rbowen
view Just displays the contents of the DBM file. If you specify a
username, it displays the particular record only. dbmmanage2
passwords.dat view
BUGS
One should be aware that there are a number of different DBM file for-
mats in existence, and with all likelihood, libraries for more than one
format may exist on your system. The three primary examples are SDBM,
NDBM, the GNU project's GDBM, and Berkeley DB 2. Unfortunately, all
these libraries use different file formats, and you must make sure that
the file format used by filename is the same format that dbmmanage2
expects to see. dbmmanage2 currently has no way of determining what
type of DBM file it is looking at. If used against the wrong format,
will simply return nothing, or may create a different DBM file with a
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different name, or at worst, it may corrupt the DBM file if you were
attempting to write to it.
dbmmanage2 has a list of DBM format preferences, defined by the @Any-
DBM::ISA array near the beginning of the program. Since we prefer the
Berkeley DB 2 file format, the order in which dbmmanage2 will look for
system libraries is Berkeley DB 2, then NDBM, then GDBM and then SDBM.
The first library found will be the library dbmmanage2 will attempt to
use for all DBM file transactions. This ordering is slightly different
than the standard @AnyDBM::ISA ordering in Perl, as well as the order-
ing used by the simple dbmopen() call in Perl, so if you use any other
utilities to manage your DBM files, they must also follow this prefer-
ence ordering. Similar care must be taken if using programs in other
languages, like C, to access these files.
One can usually use the file program supplied with most Unix systems to
see what format a DBM file is in.
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