crypt_gensalt(3C)					   Standard C Library Functions 					 crypt_gensalt(3C)

NAME

       crypt_gensalt - generate salt string for string encoding

SYNOPSIS

       #include <crypt.h>

       char *crypt_gensalt(const char *oldsalt, const struct passwd *userinfo);

DESCRIPTION

       The crypt_gensalt() function generates the salt string required by crypt(3C).

       If oldsalt is NULL, crypt_gensalt() uses the algorithm defined by CRYPT_DEFAULT in /etc/security/policy.conf. See policy.conf(4).

       If  oldsalt  is	non-null,  crypt_gensalt()  determines	if  the  algorithm  specified  by oldsalt is allowable by checking the CRYPT_ALGO-
       RITHMS_ALLOW and CRYPT_ALGORITHMS_DEPRECATE variables in /etc/security/policy.conf. If the algorithm is allowed, crypt_gensalt() loads  the
       appropriate  shared  library  and  calls crypt_gensalt_impl(3C). If the algorithm is not allowed or there is no entry for it in crypt.conf,
       crypt_gensalt() uses the default algorithm.

       The mechanism just described provides a means to migrate users to new password hashing algorithms when the password is changed.

RETURN VALUES

       Upon successful completion, crypt_gensalt() returns a pointer to the new salt. Otherwise a null pointer is returned and	errno  is  set	to
       indicate the error.

ERRORS

       The crypt_gensalt() function will fail if:

       EINVAL	       The configuration file crypt.conf contains an invalid entry.

       ELIBACC	       The required shared library was not found.

       ENOMEM	       There is insufficient memory to perform hashing.

USAGE

       The  value  returned  by  crypt_gensalt()  points  to  a  null-terminated  string. The caller of crypt_gensalt() is responsible for calling
       free(3C).

       Applications dealing with user authentication and password changing should not call crypt_gensalt() directly but should	instead  call  the
       appropriate pam(3PAM) functions.

ATTRIBUTES

       See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |      ATTRIBUTE TYPE	     |	    ATTRIBUTE VALUE	   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Interface Stability	     |Evolving			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |MT-Level		     |MT-Safe			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+

SEE ALSO

       passwd(1),  crypt(3C),  crypt_genhash_impl(3C), crypt_gensalt_impl(3C), getpassphrase(3C), malloc(3C), pam(3PAM), crypt.conf(4), passwd(4),
       policy.conf(4), attributes(5)

SunOS 5.10							    10 Jun 2002 						 crypt_gensalt(3C)