e-db1

Karel Kubat

e-tunity

2001 ff.

Table of Contents

1: Introduction

The tool e-db1 is an interface to Berkeley DB/1 hashed databases. Such files are used in, e.g., user authentication in Apache (specifically by the mod_auth_db module).

Using e-db1, one can

• delete entries from a database,
• lookup entries,
• insert or update entries,
• view the entire database.

2: Invocation

The invocation of e-db1 is very straight-forward: e-db1 always requires at least two arguments. The first one is an action, being one of delete, lookup, insert, or view. The second one is the database to process.

Depending on the action, further arguments may be needed. The action delete requires a further "key" argument. The entry with the key is looked up and removed.

The action lookup also requires a key. The entry with the key is looked up, and its value is shown.

The action insert requires two further arguments: a key and a value. A key/value pair is then inserted into (or updated in) the database.

3: Usage with Apache's mod_auth_db

To use e-db1 with databases for Apache's authentication, please observe the following:

• The key in all database entries is the username.
• The value in the entries must be at least the DES-encrypted password. Optionally, other entries may follow, separated with a colon (:).
• A typical usage of the 'other entries' (that follow the encrypted password) is to insert a group name. This will work if Apache is configured with the AuthDBUserFile and AuthDBGroupFile pointing to the same database.
• To force Apache and e-db1 to use the same binary DB1 format, tweaks in Apache's mod_auth_db module may be necessary. See e-tunity's package webserver.

4: Installation

The simplest way to install e-db1 is to obtain the RPM e-db1*rpm from http://public.e-tunity.com. The RPM file is installed by user root using rpm -i rpmfile.

Alternatively, e-db1 can be built from source. To build and install e-db1 from source, simply unpack the distribution archive, chdir into the spilled directory, and do a make install. The prerequisites for a succesful build are:

• The e-lib utility library,
• Small build tools, contained in the package misc,
• db1 support libraries, which must be installed from a distribution CD or other media.