The content of the shared directory will be available for downloading in a web browser, and it’s possible to mount it as a drive on your desktop. I used Mac OS X 10.7.2 Lion which includes Apache 2.2.0, but this should also work on other platforms and with different versions of Apache. With the following steps, I managed to create the shared directory:

1. 1.Create a user database for users who may access the share:
   

% sudo htdigest -c /var/webdav.passwd FileSharing testuser

2. Create the directory in the file system which should be shared:

% mkdir /Library/WebServer/Documents/FileSharing

% sudo chmod 777 /Library/WebServer/Documents/FileSharing

3. 3.Create a directory and file for the WebDAV lock:
   

% sudo mkdir /var/davlock

% sudo chown -R _www /var/davlock

% sudo chgrp -R _www /var/davlock

% sudo touch /var/davlock/DAVLockDB

% sudo chmod 777 /var/davlock/DAVLockDB

4. 4.Extend /etc/apache2/httpd.conf by adding the following text somewhere:
   

DavLockDB /var/davlock/DAVLockDB

Alias "/filesharing" "/Library/WebServer/Documents/FileSharing"

<Directory "/Library/WebServer/Documents/FileSharing">

    Dav On

    AllowOverride None

    Options Indexes

    Order allow,deny

    Allow from all

    AuthType Digest

    AuthName FileSharing

    AuthUserFile "/var/webdav.passwd"

    Require valid-user

</Directory>

5. 5.Make sure the httpd.conf contains the two following lines and that they are not commented-out (i.e. not prepended by #):
   

LoadModule dav_module libexec/apache2/mod_dav.so

LoadModule dav_fs_module libexec/apache2/mod_dav_fs.so

That’s it. Re-start the web server with...

% sudo /usr/sbin/apachectl restart

...and test if you can access the shared directory!