Password protect directories / folders with nginx

Overview

On an Apache server, it’s possible to password protect a directory using .htaccess and .htpasswd files. However, .htaccess files are not supported on Nginx.

You can still password protect your directories, but you need to use a basic_auth.conf file instead.

Creating the file

Log into your server via SSH.
Navigate to your user’s directory.
Make sure you have a /home/username/nginx/example.com directory.This doesn’t exist by default; you must create it by running the following:
```
sudo mkdir -p nginx/example.com
```
In this /home/username/nginx/example.com directory, add a file named ‘basic_auth.conf‘ with the following:
```
location / {
        auth_basic "Restricted";
        auth_basic_user_file /home/username/nginx/example.com/.htpasswd;
}
```
* The auth_basic parameter is just the title of the prompt the user sees when visiting this directory.
* The auth_basic_user_file parameter specifies where the password file is. Note how its path is set to the /nginx directory.

In this example, the ‘location’ directive password protects the entire domain since it’s pointing to ‘/’.
If you want a subdirectory to be password protected, change the ‘location’ directive as follows:
```
location /subdirectory/
```
Run the following to create the .htpasswd file:
```
sudo htpasswd -c /home/username/nginx/example.com/.htpasswd LOGIN
```
* LOGIN is the username you want to be used to authenticate in the login prompt.
After typing that command, enter a password and confirm it when prompted:
```
New password: 

Re-type new password:
```
Adding password for user LOGIN
Reload the nginx config file.
```
sudo service nginx reload
```
In your browser, load the directory your /home/username/nginx/example.com/basic_auth.conf points to. *In the example above, this would be your domain’s root directory since the ‘location’ directive points to /.
Enter a user/password when prompted to log in.
* In this example, your username is LOGIN and the password is the one you created above.