Update: Apache::Htpasswd is sweet! I had been writing htpasswd the old caveman way.. with crypt. This module makes things very nice.. oh and here's a little something that uses Apache::Htpasswd and CGI

#!/usr/bin/perl -wT
use CGI qw(standard);
use CGI::Carp qw(fatalsToBrowser);
use Apache::Htpasswd;

my $htpasswd="htpasswd";
my $main=new CGI();
print $main->header;
print $main->start_html('Password Administration');
$main->import_names('Q');

if ($Q::form) {
        if (($Q::username) && ($Q::oldpass) && ($Q::newpass)) {
                # all the forms have been entered
                &change_pass
        } else {
                print "please fill in all fields";
        }
} else {
        # must be a first time customer
        print $main->startform;
        print "<table border=0 cellpadding=1 cellspacing=0>\n";
        print "<tr><td>Username: </td><td>",$main->textfield(-name=>'u
+sername',-size=>30),"</td></tr>";
        print "<tr><td>Password: </td><td>",$main->password_field(-nam
+e=>'oldpass',-size=>30),"</td></tr>";
        print "<tr><td>New Password: </td><td>",$main->password_field(
+-name=>'newpass',-size=>30),"</td></tr>";
        print "<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>",$main->submit(-name=>'form',-v
+alue=>'Change Password'),"</td></tr></tab
le>";
}


sub change_pass {
        if (-e $htpasswd) { # if the htpasswd file exists
                my $htpass = new Apache::Htpasswd("$htpasswd");
    # use Apache::Htpasswd's builtin function to verify old pass befor
+e changing
                $htpass->htpasswd($Q::username,$Q::newpass,$Q::oldpass
+);
    # get errors (if any)
                my $err=$htpass->error;
                if ($err) {
                        print "Error. Most likely due to an inccorect 
+password or username \n";
                } else {
            ## must be no errors
                        print "user $Q::username password changed\n";
                }
        } else {
                print "$htpasswd cannot be found\n";
        }
}
[download]

-p

Glad you like it! I think I (still) have a newline issue in the code somewhere but haven't had the tuits to fix it yet. If you have any problems with newlines, send me some example code (email in the POD) and it may prod me to find tuits :)

Cheers,
KM

1. use CGI::Carp so you can see them in your appropriate error_log
2. Try and run the script stand-alone, like: % ./script.cgi ''

I'll look into CGI::Carp, however I've tried running it from the command line which is another source of frustration for me. I am getting

Use of uninitialized value at ./chpass.cgi line 39.
Use of uninitialized value at ./chpass.cgi line 41.
Use of uninitialized value at ./chpass.cgi line 22.
[download]

These lines correspond to the

22: $method->htpasswd($formdata{username}, $formdata{newpw}, $formdata
+{oldpw});
[download]

and the lines

        if ($ENV{'REQUEST_METHOD'} eq 'GET') {
                @pairs = split(/&/, $ENV{'QUERY_STRING'});
        } elsif ($ENV{'REQUEST_METHOD'} eq 'POST') {
[download]

at first I thought that it was the subroutine, however when I comment out the if statement:

if ($formdata{username}) {
  $method->htpasswd($formdata{username}, $formdata{newpw}, $formdata{o
+ldpw});
}
[download]

the html is printed out correctly and the script runs. I've tried some other test to see if the subroutine was parsing the form values correctly and it appears that it is. Which brings me back to thinking that the problem is in the way I have used the module syntax.

humbly -c

Update I worked this script a little further. I eyeballed thatguy's code and saw some extra spaces I had put into my $method->htpasswd statement. When I removed them, the code worked. However, I put them back in, and it still worked, which left me scratching my head why. Regardless, I've added some error checking to the code apart from the module's. I'm putting the code up at my home node since It would be a bit long for here.

enjoy -c

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;
use CGI;
use Apache::Htpasswd;

my $htpasswd = "/etc/htsec/motion.ht";
my $method = Apache::Htpasswd->new($htpasswd);
my $q = CGI->new();

my %fields;

for my $field (qw( username newpw oldpw )) {
   $fields{$field} = $q->param($field);
   unless (defined($fields{$field})) {
       showform();
       exit();
   }
}

$method->htpasswd(@fields{ qw(username newpw oldpw) });
# print a success message

sub showform {
    my $q = shift;
    print $q->header();
    print <<HTML;

<html>
<head><title>Password Administration</title></head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<form method = "post" action = "https://www.lunarmedia.net/motion/chpa
+ss.cgi">
Username:&nbsp;<input type="text" length="30" name="username"><br>
Password:&nbsp;<input type="password" length="30" name="oldpw"><br>
New Password:&nbsp;<input type="password" length="30" name="newpw"><br
+>
<input type="submit" value="Go!"><br>
</body>
</html>
HTML

}
[download]

Using CGI to generate the HTML would also give you the benefit of sticky form fields, where the contents of the field display on subsequent invocations.

Update: Fixed two typos. The code ought to work now. Then a third, as c pointed out.