pam_console(8)						   System Administrator's Manual					    pam_console(8)

NAME

       pam_console - control permissions for users at the system console

SYNOPSIS

       session optional /lib/security/pam_console.so
       auth required /lib/security/pam_console.so

DESCRIPTION

       pam_console.so  is  designed to give users at the physical console (virtual terminals and local xdm-managed X sessions by default, but that
       is configurable) capabilities that they would not otherwise have, and to take those capabilities away when the are no longer logged  in	at
       the console.  It provides two main kinds of capabilities: file permissions and authentication.

       When a user logs in at the console and no other user is currently logged in at the console, pam_console.so will change permissions and own-
       ership of files as described in the file /etc/security/console.perms.  That user may then log in on other  terminals  that  are	considered
       part  of the console, and as long as the user is still logged in at any one of those terminals, that user will own those devices.  When the
       user logs out of the last terminal, the console may be taken by the next user to log in.  Other users who have logged  in  at  the  console
       during  the  time  that the first user was logged in will not be given ownership of the devices unless they log in on one of the terminals;
       having done so on any one terminal, the next user will own those devices until he or she has logged out of every terminal that is  part	of
       the  physical  console.	Then the race can start for the next user.  In practice, this is not a problem; the physical console is not gener-
       ally in use by many people at the same time, and pam_console.so just tries to do the right thing in weird cases.

ARGUMENTS

       debug  turns on debugging

       allow_nonroot_tty
	      gain console locks and change permissions even if the TTY's owner is not root.

       permsfile=filename
	      tells pam_console.so to get its permissions database from a different file than /etc/security/console.perms

       fstab=filename
	      tells pam_console.so to read the table of configured filesystems from a file other than /etc/fstab when  scanning  permsfile.   This
	      file is used to map directories to device names.

FILES

       /var/run/console.lock
       /var/run/console/
       /etc/security/console.apps
       /etc/security/console.perms

SEE ALSO

       console.perms(5)
       console.apps(5)
       /usr/doc/pam*/html/index.html pam_console_apply(8)
       /usr/doc/pam*/html/index.html

BUGS

       Let's hope not, but if you find any, please report them via the "Bug Track" link at http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/

AUTHOR

       Michael K. Johnson <johnsonm@redhat.com>

Red Hat 							     2000/7/11							    pam_console(8)