bringing existing htaccess users into db

[Anon]

I want to move all of my existing users from an htaccess type authentication to checking against a mysql database.

Is this possible?

I don't know how to get MySQL to use the same encryption as linux so as to check it against the existing passwords.

I assume using Encrypt, which calls system call 'crypt()' would use the same algorithm, but how do I know what random number my system is using?

Thanks for any help!