PAM_AUTHENTICATE(3) App. Programmers' Manual PAM_AUTHENTICATE(3)NAMEpam_authenticate - authenticate a user
SYNOPSIS
#include <security/pam_appl.h>
int pam_authenticate(pam_handle_t *pamh, int flags);
DESCRIPTIONpam_authenticate
Use this function to authenticate an applicant user. It
is linked dynamically to the authentication modules by
Linux-PAM. It is the task of these module to perform such
an authentication. The specific nature of the authentica-
tion is not the concern of the application.
Following successful completion, the name of the authenti-
cated user will be present in the Linux-PAM item PAM_USER.
This item may be recovered with a call to pam_get_item(3).
The application developer should note that the modules may
request that the user enter their username via the conver-
sation mechanism (see pam_start(3)). Should this be the
case, the user-prompt string can be set via the
PAM_USER_PROMPT item (see pam_set_item(3)).
RETURN VALUE
On success PAM_SUCCESS is returned. All other returns
should be considered authentication failures and will be
delayed by an amount specified with prior calls to
pam_fail_delay(3). Specific failures that demand special
attention are the following:
PAM_ABORT
the application should exit immediately. Of course,
pam_end(3) should be called first.
PAM_MAXTRIES
the application has tried too many times to authen-
ticate the user, authentication should not be
attempted again.
ERRORS
May be translated to text with pam_strerror(3).
CONFORMING TO
DCE-RFC 86.0, October 1995.
BUGS
none known.
SEE ALSOpam_start(3), pam_get_item(3)pam_fail_delay(3) and
pam_strerror(3).
Also, see the three Linux-PAM Guides, for System adminis-
trators, module developers, and application developers.
Linux-PAM 0.55 1996 Dec 9 PAM_AUTHENTICATE(3)
