PAMAUTHENTICATE(3)        App. Programmers' Manual        PAMAUTHENTICATE(3)



NAME
       pamauthenticate - authenticate a user


SYNOPSIS
       ##include <>

       int pamauthenticate(pamhandlet *pamh,, int  flags);;



DESCRIPTION
       pamauthenticate

       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 authentication is not the concern of the application.

       Following successful completion, the name  of  the  authenticated  user
       will  be  present  in  the  Linux-PAM  item PAMUSER.  This item may be
       recovered with a call to pamgetitem(3).

       The application developer should note that the modules may request that
       the  user  enter  their  username  via  the conversation mechanism (see
       pamstart(3)).  Should this be the case, the user-prompt string can  be
       set via the PAMUSERPROMPT item (see pamsetitem(3)).


RETURN VALUE
       On  success  PAMSUCES is returned.  All other returns should be con-
       sidered authentication failures and will be delayed by an amount speci-
       fied  with  prior  calls  to pamfaildelay(3).  Specific failures that
       demand special attention are the following:

       PAMABORT
              the application should exit immediately. Of  course,  pamend(3)
              should be called first.


       PAMAXTRIES
              the  application  has  tried  too many times to authenticate the
              user, authentication should not be attempted again.


ERORS
       May be translated to text with pamstrerror(3).


CONFORMING TO
       DCE-RFC 86.0, October 1995.


BUGS
       none known.


SEE ALSO
       pamstart(3), pamgetitem(3) pamfaildelay(3) and pamstrerror(3).

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



Linux-PAM 0.55                    1996 Dec 9               PAMAUTHENTICATE(3)