int pam_authenticate(pam_handle_t *pamh, int flags);
DESCRIPTION
pam_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 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
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 conversation 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 authenticate the
user, authentication should not be attempted again.