Enabling WebDAV Server Support on Mac OS X As mentioned by Apple in the various OSX marketing information, client side WebDAV support has been added to the Mac OS X operating system. This enables seamless support for working with information stored on DAV enabled web servers.
Please note: due to the wide array of possible setup configurations and outside factors involved with custom hosting setups, troubleshooting, setting up, or administering WebDAV servers is beyond the scope of the tech support we are able to provide.
While Mac OS X can access WebDAV servers from the Finder using 'Connect to Server' (Command+K) attempting to connect to the root of a Mac OS X server or any other assumed location results in an error: There was a problem connecting to the server “theserver.domain.com”. Check the server name or IP address, and then try again. WebDAVNav Server is a basic WebDAV server which can be used to quickly share files and folders from your Mac with other computers, mobile devices and apps, including WebDAV Navigator available in the iOS App Store. Quick setup, select the folder to share and click the Start button. Download, Upl. Question: Q: Mac OS X 10.5.2 & WebDAV client authentification by a client certificate Hi, I've set up an Apache2 WebDAV & Web server which is only accessible by https and for clients authenticating themselfes by a suitable client certificate.
IMPORTANT: When you expose files and folders on your computer to the internet (even with password protection), you assume some risk. These steps assume that you’re familiar with the Apache web server and understand this risk. You should be comfortable with the responsibilities of maintaining a server, including keeping your Mac up to date with the latest security patches. These instructions are offered as guidance for those interested in self-hosting, but should not be considered a comprehensive overview of the Apache implementation process.
Setting up WebDAV without Server.app
OS X Server includes WebDAV as one of the options for file sharing. However, this WebDAV implementation is a fairly complex configuration that utilizes a proxy to create Apache processes that run as user accounts. In our experience this configuration has had a number of hard-to-identify bugs that can corrupt your data. We don’t recommend using it at this time.
Instead of using OS X Server’s built-in file sharing WebDAV configuration, we recommend manually configuring a WebDAV share by editing the appropriate Apache configuration file. This requires some knowledge of both the Apache web server and Apple’s implementation. You should also be comfortable with the command line. This configuration will emulate Apple’s configuration by allowing you to login to a WebDAV share using system account credentials. You will also be able to use posix group permissions to control access to the shares. However, all files and folders must be owned by the Apache web server (_www) since this configuration will use the web server’s account to read/write all files.
- For more information about the Apache httpd server, see the excellent documentation on apache.org
- There is an overview of Apple’s configuration of the Apache httpd server see their documentation website. While Apple’s documentation is sparse, they do outline what directories are used for configuration files, which is a great place to start poking around.
- Take particular note of Apple’s ReadMe.txt file (
/Library/Server/web/config/Apache2/ReadMe.txt
). It goes into more operational details about what they’ve configured and what you may and may not touch.
Configuring Apache
Assuming that you have never used Apple’s built-in file sharing feature to host WebDAV configuring Apache is fairly straightforward.
Make a copy of the example WebDAV configuration file and move it to OS X Server’s website configuration directory. The example configuration file is located at:
Copy this file to the website configuration path with a new filename. In this case we chose omnipresence-dav.conf but you can name it whatever makes the most sense to you.
Note: any file that you put in /Library/Server/Web/Config/apache2/sites/ that ends in “.conf” will be included by OS X Server in the Apache configuration when the Websites service is started. If your configuration file has any errors in it the Apache service will not start.
The example configuration file outlines how a WebDAV share is defined. We will edit it to define a single share called “omnipresence” that uses OS X’s user and group accounts to control access. Remove the example configuration’s Directory directive block and replace it with your own configuration. It should look like our example omnipresence share that we’ve configured below:
Note: the _www user, which is the posix account that Apache runs as, must have read and write access to to the WebDAV share.
For more information about Alias, Directory, and Dav directives in Apache configuration files see the following Apache documentation sections.
Also, be sure to understand the processing of Order directives so that you don’t accidentally make your WebDAV share readable (or writable!) to the rest of the Internet:
Starting the Service
When you are satisfied with your configuration, start the Websites service and test your new WebDAV share to make sure that it is accessible and that the permissions are correct!
If, by chance, you previously enabled WebDAV on file shares using OS X’s File Sharing service you will need to turn it off. This may be harder than it sounds! On some versions of OS X Server (before Mavericks) turning off WebDAV in the File Sharing service in Server.app did not, in fact, turn off WebDAV sharing. While the WebDAV share will no longer allow client access it still creates httpd processes that respond to client connections. This could cause conflicts with other WebDAV shares that you may want to setup. In our test case, we had to unload the serverd launchd job and then load it back for OS X Server to stop creating Apache processes running Apple’s WebDAV configuration. For some reason, even reboots of the system did not change the WebDAV sharing state.
To stop and then start serverd use launchctl
Only unload and load the serverd process if, after turning WebDAV sharing off, you notice processes that are still configured as WebDAV shares and a reboot of the system does not clear them. Note that these processes only appear if a client tries to access the server system with those user’s credentials. So, after a fresh reboot the system may look clear, but double check by watching the processes on the system while a client connects.
Example processes you should not see after turning off Apple’s WebDAV share. The account maxgeekery is a user account on the system.
You may also see other httpd processes running as root or _www. You can safely ignore them in this context.
Last Modified: Oct 2, 2017This section describes, how a WsgiDAV server can be accessed with differentclients.
WsgiDAV was tested with these clients
- Windows 7, 8, 10
- Windows Vista (Microsoft-WebDAV-!MiniRedir/6.0.6002)
- Window XP (Microsoft-WebDAV-!MiniRedir/5.1.2600)
- DAVExplorer
- Microsoft® Office 2013
- OpenOffice 3.1
- Ubuntu Nautilus / gvfs
- Mac OS/X Finder
The following examples assume, that we have a running WsgiDAV server on a remotemachine with this configuration:
- Server is running on a machine with IP address 192.168.0.2
- Server is listening on port 80
- A user called ‘tester’ with password ‘secret’ is configured to have access.(Or the share allows anonymous access.)
Windows clients¶
Redirector¶
The easiest way to access a WebDAV share from a Windows client is probablyto map it as a network drive, and then use the File Explorer.
If the share allows anonymous access, type this at the command promt:
For access controlled shares, we must provide a user name:
Windows will then prompt for a password. Alternatively we can pass password withthe command line:
To make this connection persistent between reboots:
To stop a connection:
Note
Some known quirks of Windows redirector are listed below.
Known issues on all Windows versions
- See als greenbytes WebDAV Mini-Redirector (MRXDAV.SYS) Versions and IssuesList.
- The WebDAV server must respond to PROPFIND and OPTIONS requests at the rootshare (‘/’). So when running behind another web server, WsgiDAV must bemounted at top level.
- Digest authentication is supported by default.Basic authentication is disabled, when HTTP is used instead of SSL/HTTPS.(This can be changed by editing the registry: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/841215)Basic authentication sends passwords unencrypted, so it is generally a goodthing to do this only over an SSL encrypted channel.Problems may arise, when we cannot provide Digest authentication (maybebecause a custom WsgiDAV domain controller has no access to the userspasswords).Or when our server does not provide HTTPS support.
Additional issues on Windows 7
- By default Basic authentication is only allowed, when SSL (HTTPS) is used.(See previous notes.)
- Reportedly on Windows 7, WebDAV requests receive a 3 second delay in theWindows explorer.To fix this, you may change IE’s proxy settings:
Additional issues on Windows Vista:
- By default Basic authentication is only allowed, when SSL (HTTPS) is used.(See previous notes.)
Additional issues on Windows XP:
- Windows XP cannot map ‘/’ shares, so we have to connect to an existingsub folder (for example /dav):
- No custom port is accepted in the URL, like http://192.168.0.2:8001/dav.So WsgiDAV must run on port 80.This also means, that SSL won’t work (This may help: http://www.stunnel.org/).
- The URL must start with http://. HTTPS is not supported.This in turn means that we have to enable Digest authentication, becauseBasic authentication is not allowed over HTTP (see common Windows issuesabove).However at least on SP3 the redirector seems to follow 302 Redirectresponses to a https location. And then Basic authentication worked.
- There have been problems reported, when the
NETUSE
command prompts youfor a name/password. (Servicepack 3 seems to work fine.)In this case, try to pass username and password on the command line with the/USER
option:
WebFolders¶
Webdav Server Free
Microsoft’s “WebFolder” client predates Windows XP’s WebDAV Redirector.
- TODO
Note
Some known quirks of Microsoft’s “WebFolder” client are listed below.
See als greenbytes Web Folder Client (MSDAIPP.DLL) Versions and Issues List.
![Webdav server for mac os x 10.10 Webdav server for mac os x 10.10](https://www.optiapp.com/help/webdav/mac-os-x/webdav_connect_-_mac_os_x_-_01.png)
- If you experience problems, you might try Microsoft’sSoftware Update for Web Folders
Linux clients¶
Nautilus / gvfs¶
Webdav Server For Windows
From the Nautilus File menu choose ‘Connect to server…’. In the dialog box enter
- Service type: ‘WebDAV (HTTP)’
- Server: ‘192.168.0.2’
- Folder: ‘ro_docs’ or whatever the share name is (leave empty for root share).
- Port: the port number (leave empty for default port 80)
- User Name: leave this empty: do not enter anything here.
Then click ‘Connect’ and enter username and password.
Webdav Server For Mac Os X 10.13
Known issues:
- When copying directories, only an HTML file is created at the target.See http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=605619
davfs2¶
On Ubuntu we can mount a WebDAV file system.First make sure, that davfs2 is installed:
Then create the mount point:
To unmount:
Mac¶
OS/X Finder¶
In the Finder menu, choose Go and Connect to Server….
1. Enter the URI of the WsgiDAV server: http://192.168.0.2/dav1. Click the [+] button behind it to keep the server URI.1. Click the [Connect] button at the bottom.1. Enter credentials and click [Connect]1. Browse, search, and so on. The volume is on the desktop.
Browser clients¶
WsgiDAV enables HTTP browsing by default, so it is always possible to enter:
in the address bar of your favorite web browser.