WebDAV - ArchWiki

# WebDAV

WebDAV (Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning) is an extension of HTTP 1.1 and therefore can be considered to be a procotol. It contains a set of concepts and accompanying extension methods to allow read and write across the HTTP 1.1 protocol. Instead of using NFS or SMB, WebDAV offers file transfers via HTTP.

The goal of this how to is to setup a simple WebDAV configuration using Apache.

See also File Sharing with Webdav and DNSSD.

## Server (Apache)

Install the Apache HTTP Server.

Now enable WebDAV. Uncomment the modules for DAV:

    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

Add the following line to `/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf`.

    DAVLockDB /home/httpd/DAV/DAVLock

Make sure you add it outside of any other directives, for instance right under the `DocumentRoot` definition.

Next, add the following (also outside of any directives):

    Alias /dav "/home/httpd/html/dav"

    <Directory "/home/httpd/html/dav">
      DAV On
      AllowOverride None
      Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
      Require all granted
    </Directory>

### Create directories

    # mkdir -p /home/httpd/DAV

Check the permissions of DavLockDB's directory and ensure it is writable by the apache user (http):

    # chown -R http:http /home/httpd/DAV # Otherwise you wouldn't be able to upload files

    # mkdir -p /home/httpd/html/dav
    # chown -R http:http /home/httpd/html/dav

## Client (Cadaver)

Cadaver is a command line WebDAV client. It can be installed with the package cadaver, available in the official repositories.

### Test it

    # cadaver http://localhost/dav
    dav:/dav/> mkcol test
    Creating `test': succeeded.
    dav:/dav/> ls
    Listing collection `/dav/': succeeded.
    Coll: test
    dav:/dav/> exit

If the above worked as shown, then you are good to go.

## Authentication

Make sure you add permissions for viewing and dav access to the directory, and maybe even make that directory ssl access only.

There are numerous different protocols you can use:

- plain
- digest
- others

Two examples follow, in which `foo` is the username:

Using digest:

    # basic form: htdigest -c /path/to/file AuthName username
    htdigest -c /etc/httpd/conf/passwd WebDAV foo

Note: Make sure digest authentication is enabled in `httpd.conf` by the presence of this entry: `LoadModule auth_digest_module modules/mod_auth_digest.so`

Using plain:

    # basic form: htpasswd -c /path/to/file username
    htpasswd -c /etc/httpd/conf/passwd foo

Next, `httpd.conf` must be edited to enable authentication. One method would be to require the user `foo` for everything:

    <Directory "/home/httpd/html/dav">
      DAV On
      AllowOverride None
      Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
      AuthType Digest # substitute "Basic" for "Digest" if you used htpasswd above
      AuthName "WebDAV"
      AuthUserFile /etc/httpd/conf/passwd
      Require user foo
    </Directory>

Note: `AuthName` must match the name passed when using the `htdigest` command for digest authentication. For basic/plain authentication, this line may be removed. Also, make sure that the `AuthUserFile` path matches that used with the `htdigest` or `htpasswd` commands above

If you want to permit everybody to read, you could use this in your httpd.conf

    <Directory "/home/httpd/html/dav">
      DAV On
      AllowOverride None
      Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
      AuthType Digest # substitute "Basic" for "Digest" if you used htpasswd above
      AuthName "WebDAV"
      AuthUserFile /etc/httpd/conf/passwd
      Require all granted
      <LimitExcept GET HEAD OPTIONS PROPFIND>
        Require user foo
      </LimitExcept>
    </Directory>

Do not forget to restart apache after making changes!

    # systemctl restart httpd

Category:

- Network sharing