NAME
dbmmanage - Manage user authentication files in DBM format
SYNOPSIS
dbmmanage [ encoding ] filename add|adduser|check|delete|update
username [ encpasswd [ group[,group...] [ comment ] ] ]
dbmmanage filename view [ username ]
dbmmanage filename import
SUMMARY
dbmmanage 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 dbmmanage.
This program can only be used when the usernames are stored in a DBM
file. To use a flat-file database see htpasswd.
This manual page only lists the command line arguments. For details of
the directives necessary to configure user authentication in httpd see
the httpd 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
extension .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
contain 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.
Additionally when using the update command, a period (.) keeps
the original groups untouched.
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
password encpasswd. dbmmanage passwords.dat add rbowen
foKntnEF3KSXA
adduser
Asks for a password and then adds an entry for username to
filename. dbmmanage 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. dbmmanage
passwords.dat check rbowen
delete Deletes the username entry from filename. dbmmanage
passwords.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. dbmmanage passwords.dat update
rbowen
view Just displays the contents of the DBM file. If you specify a
username, it displays the particular record only. dbmmanage
passwords.dat view
BUGS
One should be aware that there are a number of different DBM file
formats 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 dbmmanage
expects to see. dbmmanage 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
different name, or at worst, it may corrupt the DBM file if you were
attempting to write to it.
dbmmanage has a list of DBM format preferences, defined by the
@AnyDBM::ISA array near the beginning of the program. Since we prefer
the Berkeley DB 2 file format, the order in which dbmmanage will look
for system libraries is Berkeley DB 2, then NDBM, then GDBM and then
SDBM. The first library found will be the library dbmmanage 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 ordering 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 preference 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.