+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]]
+
+I've more or less managed to implement something based on `mod_perl` and
+`Apache::AuthenHook`, respectively in Debian packages `libapache2-mod-perl2`
+and `libapache-authenhook-perl`.
+
+In the Apache VirtualHost configuration, I have added the following:
+
+ PerlLoadModule Apache::AuthenHook
+ PerlModule My::IkiWikiBasicProvider
+
+ <Location /test/>
+ AuthType Basic
+ AuthName "wiki"
+ AuthBasicProvider My::IkiWikiBasicProvider
+ Require valid-user
+ ErrorDocument 401 /test/ikiwiki.cgi?do=signin
+ </Location>
+ <LocationMatch "^/test/(ikiwiki\.cgi$|.*\.css$|wikiicons/)">
+ Satisfy any
+ </LocationMatch>
+
+The perl module lies in `/etc/apache2/My/IkiWikiBasicProvider.pm`:
+
+ package My::IkiWikiBasicProvider;
+
+ use warnings;
+ use strict;
+ use Apache2::Const -compile => qw(OK DECLINED HTTP_UNAUTHORIZED);
+ use Storable;
+ use Authen::Passphrase;
+
+ sub userinfo_retrieve () {
+ my $userinfo=eval{ Storable::lock_retrieve("/var/lib/ikiwiki/test/.ikiwiki/userdb") };
+ return $userinfo;
+ }
+
+ sub handler {
+ my ($r, $user, $password) = @_;
+ my $field = "password";
+
+ if (! defined $password || ! length $password) {
+ return Apache2::Const::DECLINED;
+ }
+ my $userinfo = userinfo_retrieve();
+ if (! length $user || ! defined $userinfo ||
+ ! exists $userinfo->{$user} || ! ref $userinfo->{$user}) {
+ return Apache2::Const::DECLINED;
+ }
+ my $ret=0;
+ if (exists $userinfo->{$user}->{"crypt".$field}) {
+ error $@ if $@;
+ my $p = Authen::Passphrase->from_crypt($userinfo->{$user}->{"crypt".$field});
+ $ret=$p->match($password);
+ }
+ elsif (exists $userinfo->{$user}->{$field}) {
+ $ret=$password eq $userinfo->{$user}->{$field};
+ }
+ if ($ret) {
+ return Apache2::Const::OK;
+ }
+ return Apache2::Const::DECLINED;
+ }
+
+ 1;
+
+This setup also allows people with the master password to create their own
+account.
+
+I'm not really fluent in Perl, and all this can probably be improved (*or
+might destroy your computer as it is* and YMMV).
+
+-- [[Lunar]]