apache access logging

So let's say, for instance, I have an Earthlink website and I want to control access to directories in that website by username, in other words when bill logs in I want him to be limited to his own directory. I can edit the htaccess and htgroup files only but I don't believe I have syslog access, and I don't have shell access.

Here's what I want to do....
I'm looking to capture the username of people who login to the website. I'd like to pass this to a perl script that will create an account and limit access to thier own home directory. How can I capture that info. (I know this info is in /usr/local/apache/logs/www.blah_access_logs which makes it tough but possible.)
I'm hoping someone here has a trick to get this info. Anybody?

I haven't done it.... currently learning actually, but I believe it can be done with session keys. Thats how most forums keep each users private messages seperate and things like that. Download some forum and look into how it does it. I am still learning exactly how to do it though, so I can't be much assistance.

In the top-level directory, put in .htaccess

Code:

---

AuthUserFile (whatever the path to your user file is)

---

Then in each subdirectory, say /alice

Code:

---

Require user alice

---

and in directoy /bob

Code:

---

Require user bob

---

Etc

Then Alice won't be able to get into Bob's directory, and vice versa

Slarty

First off thanks to both of you. Here's the deal I know how to use htaccess and htgroup, the deal is I need to get back from the webserver who logs in so that I can extract the username and create an account for them.

I guess an easier question would be.... Are all of the login attempts logged anywhere other than the apache logs, is it in syslog? Do I need syslog access to see who logs in to the site?