Setting up webDAV in OSX

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This is a legacy page and remains here for historical reference.

Setting up webDAV in OSX

You've tinkered a bit with Apache (or at least thought about it). You've heard about WebDAV. Now, you can set it up on your OSX box in minutes (tested with Jaguar version 10.2.2).

First, DAV is short for Distributed Authoring and Versioning. In simple terms, it allows multiple users to have write access to a shared folder, served by apache, and accessible thru the desktop environments of multiple platforms. It allows sharing of iCal calendars. It is the technology underlying dotMac. It allows for group/project collaboration. And it comes free and standard with OSX if you know how to enable it.

This page shows you how. I strongly recommend you have BBEdit installed on your system before proceeding. [Get BBEdit]

I also suggest you run my script to set up aliases.mine before running this one.

set msg to "Choose which webDAV setup tasks to perform" set btns to {"Choose Me First","Restart Apache","Cancel"} set x to display dialog msg buttons btns default button 3 set btn to button returned of x if btn is equal to "Cancel" then tell me to quit -- get the administrator password set shortname to do shell script "whoami" set x to display dialog ("Enter the administrator password for " & shortname) default answer "" set jagpass to text returned of x if btn is equal to "Choose Me First" then set shellscript to "sudo mkdir /Library/WebServer/Documents/DAVdocs" my sudoshell(shellscript,jagpass) set shellscript to "sudo mkdir /Library/WebServer/DAVLock" my sudoshell(shellscript,jagpass) set shellscript to "sudo chown www:www /Library/WebServer/Documents/DAVdocs" my sudoshell(shellscript,jagpass) set shellscript to "sudo chown www:www /Library/WebServer/DAVLock" my sudoshell(shellscript,jagpass) -- set shellscript to "sudo chown " & shortname & " /etc/httpd/httpd.conf" set shellscript to "sudo chown " & shortname & "/private/etc/apache2/httpd.conf" my sudoshell(shellscript,jagpass) set favPath to "Users:" & shortname & ":Library:Favorites" -- set httpdPath to "etc:httpd:httpd.conf" set httpdPath to "private:etc:apache2:httpd.conf" tell application "Finder" try set creator type of file httpdPath to "R*ch" make alias to file httpdPath at folder favPath on error errmsg display dialog errmsg end try end tell set htaccessPath to " /Library/Webserver/Documents/DAVdocs/.htaccess" set shellscript to "sudo touch" & htaccessPath my sudoshell(shellscript,jagpass) set shellscript to "sudo chown " & shortname & htaccessPath my sudoshell(shellscript,jagpass) set htaccess to {"AuthName \"DAV Restricted\"","AuthType Basic","AuthUserFile /Library/WebServer/users","require valid-user"} repeat with aLine in htaccess set shellscript to "echo '" & aLine & "' >>" & htaccessPath my doshell(shellscript) end repeat set shellscript to "sudo chown www:www" & htaccessPath my sudoshell(shellscript,jagpass) -- add "addDAVuser" to aliases.mine set aliases_mine_path to " /Users/" & shortname & "/Library/init/tcsh/aliases.mine" set anewalias to "alias dav 'sudo htpasswd /Library/WebServer/users'" set shellscript to "touch" & aliases_mine_path my doshell(shellscript) set shellscript to "echo \"" & anewalias & "\" >> " & aliases_mine_path my doshell(shellscript) set msg to "You must now modify httpd.conf and add a DAV user. This is explained in the commented portion of this script (assuming no one has modified it). After making these modifications, run this script again to restart Apache." display dialog msg (* To modify httpd.conf - go to your Favorites folder where an alias to httpd.conf has now been conveniently placed. Open it. - find this line and remove the leading # #LoadModule dav_module libexec/httpd/libdav.so - then find this line and remove the leading # #AddModule mod_dav.c - while you're at it, find the following line and move it immediately above the "LoadModule dav_module" line #LoadModule php4_module libexec/httpd/libphp4.so - then find the following line and move it immediately above the "AddModule mod_dav.c" line #AddModule mod_php4.c (doing this will save you some trouble if you decide to enable php) - find this section # Note that from this point forward you must specifically allow # particular features to be enabled - so if something's not working as # you might expect, make sure that you have specifically enabled it # below. - add the following somewhere after it # # Settings for WebDAV Server # DAVLockDB /Library/WebServer/DAVLock/DAVLock DAVMinTimeout 600 DAVDepthInfinity On <Directory /Library/WebServer/Documents/DAVdocs> DAV On AllowOverride AuthConfig AuthName "DAV Restricted" AuthType Basic AuthUserFile /Library/WebServer/users <Limit PUT POST DELETE PROPFIND PROPPATCH MKCOL COPY MOVE LOCK UNLOCK> Require valid-user </Limit> </Directory> # - save httpd.conf - Now you must create a user. At the command prompt, type sudo htpasswd -c /Library/WebServer/users davuser - you will need to enter your administrator password, then type and re-type the password for davuser - now run this script again, this time choosing to restart apache. *) else if btn is equal to "Restart Apache" then set shellscript to "sudo apachectl graceful restart" my sudoshell(shellscript,jagpass) set msg to "If all has gone well, you may now attempt to access your DAVdocs folder by going to http://you.domain.or.ip/DAVdocs in your web browser, or in the Finder (Go --> Connect to Server *or* command-k)" display dialog msg end if on doshell(cli) display dialog cli do shell script cli end doshell on sudoshell(cli,pswd) display dialog cli do shell script cli administrator privileges true password pswd end sudoshell

If you have previously run the above script, but have upgraded OSX (eg. 10.2.4), run the following script to set things right. DO NOT USE THE SCRIPT BELOW IF YOU HAVE NOT RUN THE ABOVE SCRIPT PRIOR TO UPGRADING YOUR OSX INSTALLATION! IT WILL THROW ERRORS.
set msg to "Choose which webDAV setup tasks to perform" set btn1 to "Deal With OSX Update" set btns to {btn1,"Restart Apache","Cancel"} set x to display dialog msg buttons btns default button 3 set btn to button returned of x if btn is equal to "Cancel" then tell me to quit -- get the administrator password set shortname to do shell script "whoami" set x to display dialog ("Enter the administrator password for " & shortname) default answer "" set jagpass to text returned of x if btn is equal to btn1 then set shellscript to "sudo chown www:www /Library/WebServer/Documents/DAVdocs" my sudoshell(shellscript,jagpass) set shellscript to "sudo chown www:www /Library/WebServer/DAVLock" my sudoshell(shellscript,jagpass) set shellscript to "sudo chown " & shortname & " /etc/httpd/httpd.conf" my sudoshell(shellscript,jagpass) set favPath to "Users:" & shortname & ":Library:Favorites" set httpdPath to "etc:httpd:httpd.conf" tell application "Finder" try set creator type of file httpdPath to "R*ch" -- make alias to file httpdPath at folder favPath on error errmsg display dialog errmsg end try end tell set htaccessPath to " /Library/Webserver/Documents/DAVdocs/.htaccess" set shellscript to "sudo touch" & htaccessPath my sudoshell(shellscript,jagpass) set shellscript to "sudo chown www:www" & htaccessPath my sudoshell(shellscript,jagpass) -- add "addDAVuser" to aliases.mine set aliases_mine_path to " /Users/" & shortname & "/Library/init/tcsh/aliases.mine" set shellscript to "touch" & aliases_mine_path my doshell(shellscript) set msg to "You must once again modify httpd.conf. This is explained in the commented portion of this script (assuming no one has modified it). After making these modifications, run this script again to restart Apache." display dialog msg (* To modify httpd.conf - go to your Favorites folder where an alias to httpd.conf should have already been conveniently placed. Open it. - find this line and remove the leading # #LoadModule dav_module libexec/httpd/libdav.so - then find this line and remove the leading # #AddModule mod_dav.c - while you're at it, find the following line and move it immediately above the "LoadModule dav_module" line #LoadModule php4_module libexec/httpd/libphp4.so - then find the following line and move it immediately above the "AddModule mod_dav.c" line #AddModule mod_php4.c (doing this will save you some trouble if you decide to enable php) - find this section # Note that from this point forward you must specifically allow # particular features to be enabled - so if something's not working as # you might expect, make sure that you have specifically enabled it # below. - add the following somewhere after it # # Settings for WebDAV Server # DAVLockDB /Library/WebServer/DAVLock/DAVLock DAVMinTimeout 600 DAVDepthInfinity On <Directory /Library/WebServer/Documents/DAVdocs> DAV On AllowOverride AuthConfig AuthName "DAV Restricted" AuthType Basic AuthUserFile /Library/WebServer/users <Limit PUT POST DELETE PROPFIND PROPPATCH MKCOL COPY MOVE LOCK UNLOCK> Require valid-user </Limit> </Directory> # - save httpd.conf - If you want to create a user, type this at the command prompt: dav newdavusername - you will need to enter your administrator password, then type and re-type the password for newdavusername - now run this script again, this time choosing to restart apache. *) else if btn is equal to "Restart Apache" then set shellscript to "sudo apachectl graceful restart" my sudoshell(shellscript,jagpass) set msg to "If all has gone well, you may now attempt to access your DAVdocs folder by going to http://you.domain.or.ip/DAVdocs in your web browser, or in the Finder (Go --> Connect to Server *or* command-k)" display dialog msg end if on doshell(cli) display dialog cli do shell script cli end doshell on sudoshell(cli,pswd) display dialog cli do shell script cli administrator privileges true password pswd end sudoshell

Copy and paste the above script into your Jaguar Script Editor, compile it, and run it. Follow the instructions. It's a multi-step process, but fairly straightforward. The script includes several display dialog commands, which allow you to watch, learn, and debug, and to stop the script if something seems awry. It is also helpful to open the Script Editor event log (before running the script!) and check "Show Event Results" to follow the progress of the script.

A note about aliases.mine
This script adds a line to your aliases.mine file which allows you to add webDAV users via the command line as follows:

dav newuser

You will need to exit your current shell and log in anew before this feature will take effect. More information about setting up aliases.mine can be found here.

Credits

My thanks to Shawn Wall who posted the first webDAV how-to I ever read (and on which this script is based).

jwbaumann(shift-2)linkedresources(dot)com

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