1 .\" Hey Emacs! This file is -*- nroff -*- source.
2 .\" $Id: pam_authenticate.3,v 1.2 1997/02/15 18:39:59 morgan Exp $
3 .\" $FreeBSD: src/contrib/libpam/doc/man/pam_authenticate.3,v 1.2.6.2 2001/06/11 15:28:11 markm Exp $
4 .\" Copyright (c) Andrew G. Morgan 1996-7 <morgan@parc.power.net>
5 .TH PAM_AUTHENTICATE 3 "1996 Dec 9" "PAM 0.55" "App. Programmers' Manual"
8 pam_authenticate \- authenticate a user
11 .B #include <security/pam_appl.h>
13 .BI "int pam_authenticate(pam_handle_t " *pamh ", int " flags ");"
19 Use this function to authenticate an applicant user. It is linked
21 to the authentication modules by
23 It is the task of these module to perform such an authentication. The
24 specific nature of the authentication is not the concern of the
28 Following successful completion, the
30 of the authenticated user will be present in the
34 This item may be recovered with a call to
35 .BR pam_get_item "(3)."
38 The application developer should note that the modules may request
39 that the user enter their username via the conversation mechanism (see
41 Should this be the case, the user-prompt string can be set via
45 .BR pam_set_item "(3))."
50 is returned. All other returns should be considered
51 authentication failures and will be
53 by an amount specified with prior calls to
54 .BR pam_fail_delay "(3). "
55 Specific failures that demand special attention are the following:
58 the application should exit immediately. Of course,
60 should be called first.
64 the application has tried too many times to authenticate the
65 user, authentication should not be attempted again.
68 May be translated to text with
69 .BR pam_strerror "(3). "
72 DCE-RFC 86.0, October 1995.
81 .BR pam_get_item "(3) "
82 .BR pam_fail_delay "(3) "
84 .BR pam_strerror "(3). "
89 .BR "System administrators" ", "
90 .BR "module developers" ", "
92 .BR "application developers" ". "