I am trying to implement a system whereby only one subdirectory of my website requires a log and passwd. In the root folder I have an .htaccess files which merely sets my own default error pages and performs some permanent redirections, includes nothing about authorisation. Then i created a second .htaccess file in the subdirectory i want to protect with the authoriastion code:

AuthUserFile /html/.htpasswd
AuthName "Protected Access"
AuthType Basic

<LIMIT GET POST>
Require valid-user
</LIMIT>
I know this code is all correct and the unix path to the .htpasswd file is correct because when i delete the .htaccess file in the root folder, the login and pass works fine when accessing the sub-directory, it is only when they are both there, the second one, is not being allowed to work, when i try to access a page within that subdirectory i just get an error page.
Any ideas on how to get them both working at the same time ???

Could it be that because you have 2 .htaccess files in the one folder is creating confusion? Also does your server (host) support this?


Mik

problem was (for anyone who finds themselves in same situation) that I had defined a custom error page for error 401 in the root .htaccess file. error 401 however is the "authorisation required" error page. Therefore the .htaccess file in the sub-directory which contained authorisation info was being rendered useless because as soon as apache saw that the webpage being requested required authorization it looked in the .htaccess file in the root folder (nb .htaccess search hierarchy) and computed the custom error page for error 401 and terminated, therefore the .htaccess in the sub-directory was never going to work. Lesson learnt.