pam_start

PAM_START(3)	       Application Programmers’ Manual		 PAM_START(3)



NAME
       pam_start, pam_end - activating Linux-PAM


SYNOPSIS
       #include <security/pam_appl.h>

       int  pam_start(const  char  *service,  const  char *user, const struct
       pam_conv *conv, pam_handle_t **pamh_p);

       int pam_end(pam_handle_t *pamh, int pam_status);



DESCRIPTION
       pam_start
	      Initialize the Linux-PAM library.	 Identifying the  application
	      with  a  particular  service  name.   The username can take the
	      value NULL, if not known at the time the interface is  initial-
	      ized.   The conversation structure is passed to the library via
	      the conv argument.  (For a complete  description	of  this  and
	      other  structures	 the  reader  is directed to the more verbose
	      Linux-PAM application developers’ guide).	 Upon successful ini-
	      tialization,  an opaque pointer-handle for future access to the
	      library is returned through the contents of the pamh_p pointer.


       pam_end
	      Terminate the Linux-PAM library.	The service application asso-
	      ciated with the pamh  handle,  is	 terminated.   The  argument,
	      pam_status,  passes  the	value  most  recently returned to the
	      application from the library; it indicates the manner in	which
	      the  library  should  be	shutdown.   Besides carrying a return
	      value, this argument may be logically OR’d with PAM_DATA_SILENT
	      to indicate that the module should not treat the call too seri-
	      ously. It is generally used to indicate that the current	clos-
	      ing of the library is in a fork(2)ed process, and that the par-
	      ent will take care of cleaning up things that exist outside  of
	      the current process space (files etc.).


RETURN VALUE
       pam_start

       pam_end
	      On success, PAM_SUCCESS is returned


ERRORS
       May be translated to text with pam_strerror(3).


CONFORMING TO
       DCE-RFC 86.0, October 1995.

       Note,  the PAM_DATA_SILENT flag is pending acceptance with the DCE (as
       of 1996/12/4).


BUGS
       None known.


SEE ALSO
       fork(2), pam_authenticate(3),  pam_acct_mgmt(3),	 pam_open_session(3),
       and pam_chauthtok(3).

       Also,  see the three Linux-PAM Guides, for System administrators, mod-
       ule developers, and application developers.



Linux-PAM 0.56			 1997 Feb 15			 PAM_START(3)