Configuring WebDAVContrib with HTTP::Daemon

Using HTTP::Daemon is the simplest way to get a lightweight WebDAV server up and running quickly. It lacks most of the features of more sophisticated web servers, such as SSL support and complex authentication schemes, which restricts it to use behind firewalls.

The server is implemented in a script in tools/http_daemon.pl

Usage: http_daemon.pl [options]

Options:
   -fs FS or --filesystem FS
      set filesystem to Filesys::Virtual::FS (e.g. PlainPlusAttrs)
      default is Foswiki
   -r R or --root R
      set root filesystem path to R (required, for PlainPlusAttrs only)
   -t N or --trace N
      set tracing to N
   -ar R or --authrealm R
      set authrealm to R (default is Foswiki)

The script is run by cd'ing to the tools directory and:

$ perl http_daemon.pl http://server:80/root

The parameter specifies the url we are serving, so this server will respond to URLs starting with http://server/root/, where /root is a URL path that will be used to access Foswiki data. For example, to access the text of this topic you would use http://server/root/Extensions/ConfiguringWebDAVContribWithHTTPDaemon.txt.

If you use a different filesystem - for example, the PlainPlusAttrs filesystem which can be used to export simple directory structures - then you may need to use the --root option to tell the script where the root of the filesystem is. For example,

$ perl http_daemon.pl http://server:8080/ --filesystem PlainPlusAttrs --root /home/user/webdav

will export the files in /home/user/webdav under the URL http://server:8080/

Error messages are output to standard error (the console). If you are having problems with WebDAV you can enable tracing using the --trace option. See WebDAVContrib#Debugging for more information.

Note that the only authentication scheme supported by this server is Basic Auth, which means passwords are sent in plain text. The filesystem is expected to provide authentication support. Note that PlainPlusAttrs does not support any form of authentication.