HTDIGEST(1)

💅 HTDIGEST 💅

okay bestie, so htdigest is the little command-line icon that manages user files for digest authentication. she's giving lowercase but she's got main character energy fr fr. 🎀

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

htdigest [ -c ] passwdfile realm username

🌸 SUMMARY 🌸

so basically, htdigest is what you use to create and update the flat-files that store usernames, realm, and password for digest authentication of HTTP users. no cap.

here's the tea: resources on your Apache HTTP server can be locked down so only the users listed in the files that htdigest makes can get in. yes, gatekeeping is valid here 💅.

quick heads up: this manual page only lists the command line arguments. for the details of the directives you need to actually configure digest authentication in httpd, go read the Apache manual — it's part of the Apache distribution, or you can find it at http://httpd.apache.org/. 🔥

✨ OPTIONS ✨

• -c — create the passwdfile. and if passwdfile already exists?? it gets deleted first. 😭 gone. poof. not me being dramatic, that's literally what it does.
• passwdfile — the name of the file that's gonna contain the username, realm, and password. if -c is given, this file gets created if it doesn't already exist, or deleted and recreated if it does exist. so like, be careful bestie 🫶.
• realm — the realm name that the user name belongs to. See 2617 for more details. iykyk 📚.
• username — the user name to create or update in passwdfile. if username does not exist in this file, an entry gets added ✨. if it does exist, then the password is changed. glow up unlocked 💖.

🔒 SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS 🔒

this program is not safe as a setuid executable. do not make it setuid. like, seriously, do not. i'm not even being cute about it, this one's real. 💀

🦋 FILES 🦋

the digest authentication file path is specified as an argument on the command line and may be located anywhere on the filesystem. she's free, she roams 🌈.

• passwdfile — the flat-file containing usernames, realms, and password hashes. the whole squad, all in one file 🍓.

and that's the whole page, periodt 👑

htdigest — Apache HTTP Server — 2026-05-08 💖 mwah, go secure those resources bestie ✨