It's a bit inconvenient that one also has to type in the
*Login - Confirm Password* if one only wants to change
the *Preferences -- Subscriptions*.  --[[tschwinge]]

> You don't. The password fields on the preferences fields are only needed
> if you want to change your password and should otherwise be left blank.
> --[[Joey]]

>> Aha, then the problem is Firefox, which is automatically filling the
>> *Password* field with its previous value, but not filling the
>> *Confirm Password* one.  --[[tschwinge]]

## easy access to the userdb for apache auth?

My use case is:

* restricted ikiwiki
* read/edit only allowed from the local network (done with apache restrictions)
* edit only for people authenticated (done with vanilla ikiwiki passwordauth)

I would like to allow people to read/edit the wiki from outside of the
local network, if and only if they already have an ikiwiki account.

[[httpauth]] doesn't fit since it doesn't allow anonymous local users
to create their own account. I want a single, local, simple auth
database.

My (naïve?) idea would be:

* keep the [[passwordauth]] system
* provide a way for Apache to use the userdb for authentication if
people want to connect from outside

I looked at the various auth modules for apache2. It seems that none
can use a "perl Storable data" file. So, I think some solutions could
be:

* use a sqlite database instead of a perl Storable file
  * can be used with
    [mod_auth_dbd](http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_authn_dbd.html) 
  * requires a change in ikiwiki module [[passwordauth]]
* use an external program to read the userdb and talk with
  [mod_auth_external](http://unixpapa.com/mod_auth_external.html)
  * requires the maintainance of this external auth proxy over ikiwiki
    userdb format changes
  * (I don't know perl)
* include this wrapper in ikiwiki
  * something like `ikiwiki --auth user:pass:userdb` check the
    `user:pass` pair in `userdb` and returns an Accept/Reject flag to
    Apache 
  * requires a change in ikiwiki core
  * still requires
    [mod_auth_external](http://unixpapa.com/mod_auth_external.html)
* do it with Apache perl sections
  * (I don't know perl)

Any opinion/suggestion/solution to this is welcome and appreciated.

--
[[NicolasLimare]]

For a similar use case, I've been intending to implement
[[todo/httpauth_feature_parity_with_passwordauth]], but your idea may
actually be the way to go. IMHO, the Perl sections idea is the
easiest to setup, but on the long run, I'd prefer ikiwiki to optionnally
use a userdb storage backend supported at least by Apache and lighttpd.
--[[intrigeri]]

Tons of CPAN modules may help, but most of them are specific to `mod_perl`,
and AFAIK, ikiwiki is generally not run with `mod_perl`. It's not clear to me
wether these modules depend on the webapp to be run with `mod_perl` set 
as the script handler, or only on `mod_perl` to be installed and loaded.

* CPAN's `Apache::AuthenHook` allows to plug arbitrary Perl handlers as
  Apache authentication providers.
* CPAN's `Apache::Authen::Program` (`mod_perl`)
* [http://www.openfusion.com.au/labs/mod_auth_tkt/](mod_auth_tkt) along with CPAN's
  `Apache::AuthTkt`
--[[intrigeri]]