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 initialized. The conver-
sation 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 initialization, 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 associated 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 seriously. It is gen-
erally used to indicate that the current closing of
the library is in a fork(2)ed process, and that the
parent 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 ALSOfork(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 adminis-
trators, module developers, and application developers.
Linux-PAM 0.56 1997 Feb 15 PAM_START(3)