WebDAV (Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning)
is an augmentation of the HTTP convention that enables clients to alter and oversee reports and files put away on web servers.
WebDAV gives a system to clients to make, change, move, transfer, and download archives on an Apache web server. This settles on WebDAV a famous decision for designers, particularly when joined with Subversion or Git.
You can without much of a stretch mount WebDAV’s information stockpiling to the neighborhood filesystem. This should be possible with the mount command or with a WebDAV-bolstered file administrator, for example, Nautilus or Konqueror.
In this article I will clarify some fast and simple strides to set up WebDAV with Apache on CentOS 7
Requirements
- A server have running CentOS 7 with Apache installed
- A static Public IP address for your server
Install the WebDAV module
The WebDAV module is included with the apache2 installation in CentOS 7, and is enabled by default. You can verify that the WebDAV module is running by using the following command:
sudo httpd -M | grep fs
If WebDAV is enabled, you will see the following output:
dav_fs_module (shared)
Configure the WebDAV directory
After installing the WebDAV module, you will need to create a webdav directory. Here, we will create the webdav directory under the Apache web root directory.
sudo mkdir /var/www/html/webdav
Next, change the ownership (to the apache user) and the permissions for the webdav directory with the following commands:
sudo chown -R apache:apache /var/www/html/webdav sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/webdav
Set up password authentication
It is important to secure your webdav directory with a password. You can do this by creating an .htpasswd file.
To create it, run the following command:
sudo htpasswd -c /etc/httpd/.htpasswd dev
This will create a password file for the user dev.
Now, you need to assign group ownership of the file to the apache user, and lock down the permissions for everyone else. To do this, run the following command:
sudo chown root:apache /etc/httpd/.htpasswd sudo chmod 640 /etc/httpd/.htpasswd
Configure an Apache vhost for WebDAV
Next, you need to create a virtual host file for the webdav directory. Start by creating a new site configuration file called webdav.conf.
sudo nano /etc/httpd/conf.d/webdav.conf
Add the following content:
DavLockDB /var/www/html/DavLock
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
DocumentRoot /var/www/html/webdav/
ErrorLog /var/log/httpd/error.log
CustomLog /var/log/httpd/access.log combined
Alias /webdav /var/www/html/webdav
<Directory /var/www/html/webdav>
DAV On
AuthType Basic
AuthName "webdav"
AuthUserFile /etc/httpd/.htpasswd
Require valid-user
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>
Now, restart Apache to activate the new configuration:
sudo apachectl restart
Test WebDav
Finally, WebDAV is ready for testing. Here, we will use a browser and a client to check WebDAV.
Test with a web browser
To test whether the authentication is working correctly or not, open your web browser and navigate to the URLÂ http://your.server.ip/webdav/.
You will be prompted for a user name and password to access WebDAV. Here, you will need to enter the user name and password we set before.
Test with a command line client
Here, we will use a WebDAV client called Cadaver. To install Cadaver, use the command below:
sudo yum --enablerepo=epel install cadaver
After installing Cadaver, you can test your WebDAV using the command below:
cadaver http://your.server.ip/webdav/
If all went well, you will be asked to enter your user name and password for WebDAV. Then, You should be granted access which means that WebDAV is working correctly.
Some useful Cadaver command examples are listed below:
To upload a file to WebDAV:
dav:/webdav/> put filename
To view/list the contents on WebDAV:
dav:/webdav/> ls
To create a new directory and navigate to it:
dav:/webdav/> mkdir new-dir dav:/webdav/> cd new-dir
Once you are done, you can exit using the below command:
dav:/webdav/> exit
