HTTP .htpasswd protect sub-domain on Nginx recursively

Question

I want to password protect my developer subdomain (dev.example.com), and leave the main domain publicly available.

I want to do this recursively, so that any file or folder on the subdomain will always prompt you for a login.

In the Nginx config file, I've added the following to my dev.example.com server-block (note that I have separate server-blocks for the main and subdomain):

location ^~ / {
    auth_basic "Administrator Login";
    auth_basic_user_file /home/path/to/.htpasswd;
}

From searching around on SF, I was under the impression that the ^~ identifier makes the password protection recursive, but it doesn't.

While dev.example.com specifically prompts me for a login, dev.example.com/folder/ doesn't.

What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

To protect the entire subdomain, the statements should appear in the existing server block:

server {
    server_name dev.example.com;
    auth_basic "Administrator Login";
    auth_basic_user_file /home/path/to/.htpasswd;
    ...
}

Answer 2

This should work. And make sure to restart nginx after completing the edit.

server {
    listen 80 default_server;
    listen [::]:80 default_server;

    root /var/www/html/subdomain;
    index index.php index.html index.html
    server_name dev.example.com;;

    location ^~ / {
        auth_basic "Restricted";
        auth_basic_user_file /etc/nginx/.htpasswd;
    }

}