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

NAME

       pam_authenticate - authenticate a user

SYNOPSIS

       #include <security/pam_appl.h>

       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 speci-
       fied 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.

ERRORS

       May be translated to text with pam_strerror(3).

CONFORMING TO

       DCE-RFC 86.0, October 1995.

BUGS

       none known.

SEE ALSO

       pam_start(3), pam_get_item(3) pam_fail_delay(3) and pam_strerror(3).

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

Linux-PAM 0.55							    1996 Dec 9						       PAM_AUTHENTICATE(3)