HTTPS authentication in nginx

In order not to forget again how to setup http authentication in nginx here is a reminder.

For HTTPS follow these steps:

$ sudo -s
# cd /etc/nginx
# openssl req -new -x509 -nodes -out server.crt -keyout server.key

and add these lines to your server instance:

server {
    listen 443;
    ssl                  on;
    ssl_certificate      /etc/nginx/server.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key  /etc/nginx/server.key;
...

To setup basic authentication, add these lines to the same file:

location / {
    auth_basic "Restricted";
    auth_basic_user_file /etc/nginx/htpasswd;
    # you might also want to deny access based on IP here
    #allow <ip-address>;
    #deny all;
...

Finally, to generate /etc/nginx/htpasswd, use this one-liner:

echo -e "your-username:`perl -le 'print crypt("your-password","salt")'`" > /etc/nginx/htpasswd

Restart nginx and Bob's your uncle!