Enable Webdav Tech in Apache 2

Novell Cool Solutions: Trench
By Domnic Mendes

Applies to:

• Novell Linux Desktop 9
• Open Enterprise Server
• SUSE Linux Professional 9.3
• SUSE Linux 10
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server

WebDAV technology allows people to read and/or write files to a remote Web server without having to use FTP. Using the HTTPS protocol, you can wrap the WebDAV transactions with SSL, which can be particularly useful.

If you're using Apache 2.0, enabling mod_dav support (the module used to provide WebDAV functionality) is as simple as compiling Apache 2.0 with the --enable-dav configure switch. You also need to create a place for the Apache user (or the user the Web server runs as) to store the WebDAV locking database.

Here's an example:

# mkdir /var/davlock
# chgrp apache /var/davlock
# chmod g+w /var/davlock 

Then, add the following lines to the httpd.conf file:

<Ifmodule mod_dav.c>
  DAVLockDB /var/davlock/DAVlock
</IfModule>

<Directory /var/www/davtest>
  DAV On
</Directory>

Next, create the /var/www/davtest directory, which will be your initial testing ground for WebDAV. Note that we're assuming that /var/www is the top-level directory of your Web site. To ensure that http://localhost/davtest/ corresponds to the directory, choose a directory name accordingly.

After you restart the server, you should be able to use any DAV-enabled client to read and write files to http://localhost/davtest/. One command-line client that's useful for testing and debugging is the cadaver tool.

Be aware that the above example directives are suitable only for testing; if you're using WebDAV in production, or anywhere else that's publicly accessible, be sure to use appropriate access controls.

Reader Comments

• all you need to know to activate WebDav on SuSE Linux
• Come on Novell. What about how you achieve this in SLES10?
• very useful, but Suse would prefer a /srv Amish.
• not useful at all, doesn't work, seeems like the author is not using a SuSE systems i.e. /srv/www/htdocs is the home directory for apache in SuSE.
• agree'd specifics don't apply such as /var/www. Is lipservice to actually implimenting webdav. Article ends that this is only good for testing, but offers no suggestions on actual implimintation.
• MIght as well have foudn a webdav install for another OS, as someone else stated, this does not correspond at all to the install in SUSE10. Very disappointing.
• Shame on you. This article is not SuSE specific AND is doesn't work. This makes Novell/SuSE look bad. Alas, this is exactly why people hate Linux--bad support is worse than no support.
• You don't need to rebuild apache to get webdav support... just enable it in the YaST HTTP Server module under DAV

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