Parsing/validating Apache .htaccess file

[pingo]

Hi,

Does anyone know of a module to parse and/or validate an Apache .htaccess file? What I want to do is to automatically (with a cron job) block certain ip numbers, and the only way I can think of is to put a RewriteCond in the appropriate .htaccess file. Now, this isn't particularly difficult, of course, but if I managed to screw that file up, it would be bad...

(In case anyone is wondering, the cron job loops through the access log and generates a list of ip numbers that seem to be bulk downloading content from our site.)

[reneeb]

Maybe Apache::Htaccess is helpful for you.

[izut]

You can have a htaccess.tpl and then process it using some templating toolkit of your choice, like Template-Toolkit. It is easier to mantain this way IMHO.

Example:

use strict;
use warnings;
use Template;

my $template = Template->new();

my $vars = {
    ips_to_block => [qw/10.10.10.1 10.10.11.1/],
};

my $output = '';
$template->process(\*DATA, $vars, \$output) or die $template->error();
print $output;
__DATA__
AuthUserFile /var/apache/htpasswd
AuthGroupFile /var/apache/htgroup
AuthName "My Realm"
AuthType Basic 

order allow,deny
allow from all
[% FOREACH ip_to_block = ips_to_block %]
deny from [% ip_to_block %]
[% END %]

Hope this helps.

Update:Removed <Limit> tags. Thanks merlyn!

[merlyn]

<Limit GET POST>

Stop limiting the limits! Remove that line (and the closing line). Otherwise, your restrictions are not applying to the other half dozen methods that can used in that area.

It's probably not your fault. One of the early Apache docs showed <limit GET POST> and everyone picked up on it, but of course that was revised later, but by then everyone was cargo-culting the broken thing.

From the apache docs:

Access controls are normally effective for all access methods, and this is the usual desired behavior. In the general case, access control directives should not be placed within a <limit> section.

So, one of my many personal crusades is to remove this cargo cult by telling people: Don't limit your limits!.