PAMSTART(3)            Application Programmers' Manual           PAMSTART(3)



NAME
       pamstart, pamend - activating Linux-PAM


SYNOPSIS
       ##include <>

       int  pamstart(const  char  *service,,  const  char  *user,, const struct
       pamconv *conv,, pamhandlet **pamhp);;

       int pamend(pamhandlet *pamh,, int pamstatus);;



DESCRIPTION
       pamstart
              Initialize the Linux-PAM library.  Identifying  the  application
              with a particular service name.  The username can take the value
              NUL, if not known at the time  the  interface  is  initialized.
              The conversation structure is passed to the library via the conv
              argument.  (For a complete description of this and other  struc-
              tures  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 pamhp pointer.


       pamend
              Terminate the Linux-PAM library.  The service application  asso-
              ciated  with  the  pamh  handle,  is  terminated.  The argument,
              pamstatus, 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 PAMDATASILENT
              to indicate that the module should not treat the call too  seri-
              ously. It is generally 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
       pamstart

       pamend
              On success, PAMSUCES is returned


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


CONFORMING TO
       DCE-RFC 86.0, October 1995.

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


BUGS
       None known.


SEE ALSO
       fork(2),  pamauthenticate(3),  pamacctmgmt(3),  pamopensession(3),
       and pamchauthtok(3).

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



Linux-PAM 0.56                    1997 Feb 15                     PAMSTART(3)