Mac OSX setup for WebDAV Navigator

These instructions have been tested on OSX 10.6.5. To enable WebDAV sharing through your OSX computer follow these steps:

  • Enable the DAV extensions within Apache by editing the configuration file
  • Open Finder, press COMMAND-SHIFT-G, and enter /etc/apache2/
  • Locate the httpd.conf file and open it in a text editor.
  • Search for the line #Include /private/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-dav.conf, and remove the # at the start of the line, save the file
  • Go back to Finder, press COMMAND-SHIFT-G, and then enter /etc/apache2/extra/
  • Locate the httpd-dav.conf file and open it in a text editor
  • Replace the content of the lines so that they look similar to the following, replace "seanashton" with your own username, and save:
    DavLockDB "/Library/WebServer/davlocks/DAVLockDB"
    Alias /dav "/Library/WebServer/Documents/dav"
    <Directory "/Library/WebServer/Documents/dav">
        Dav On
        Order Allow,Deny
        Allow from all
        AuthType Digest
        AuthName Private
        # You can use the htdigest program to create the password database:
        #   htdigest -c "/usr/user.passwd" DAV-upload admin
        AuthUserFile "/usr/user.passwd"
        AuthDigestProvider file
        Require valid-user
        # Allow universal read-access, but writes are restricted
        # to the admin user.
        <LimitExcept GET OPTIONS>
            require user seanashton
        </LimitExcept>
    </Directory>
    
  • Launch the Terminal application to get to a command prompt
  • Execute the following commands:
    sudo mkdir -p /Library/WebServer/davlocks/
    sudo mkdir -p /Library/WebServer/Documents/dav        
    sudo touch /Library/WebServer/davlocks/DAVLockDB
    sudo chown -R www:www /Library/WebServer/davlocks
    sudo chown -R www:www /Library/WebServer/Documents/dav
    
  • From the Terminal again you need to then create the user database, replace seanashton with your own username:
    htdigest -c "/usr/user.passwd" Private seanashton    
    
    You will be prompted to enter a password twice to confirm.
  • Launch the System Preferences application, click on Sharing
  • Locate the Web Sharing option. If it is already "On" then turn it off, before turning it "On" again. If it is already "Off" then turn it "On"
  • You should now be able to browse to the share by using your computers ip address at: http://{ip_address}/dav
  • You will need to enter the username and password from above into WebDAV Navigator in order to correctly authenticate with the machine

Firewall considerations

OSX has a built-in firewall that may restrict incoming connections to your WebDAV server.

Apple has provided instructions at https://support.apple.com/kb/ht1810 which explain how to set access for specific applications and services.

If you have any third party applications that may also restrict incoming/outgoing connections you may need to configure those applications with exceptions as well.

Additional Reference

www.macgeneration.com (french)