opensolaris man page for pam_get_user

pam_get_user(3PAM)					       PAM Library Functions						pam_get_user(3PAM)

NAME
       pam_get_user - PAM routine to retrieve user name

SYNOPSIS
       cc [ flag ... ] file ...  -lpam [ library ... ]
       #include <security/pam_appl.h>

       int pam_get_user(pam_handle_t *pamh, char **user,
	    const char *prompt);

DESCRIPTION
       The  pam_get_user()  function  is used by  PAM service modules to retrieve the current user name from the  PAM handle. If the user name has
       not been set with pam_start() or  pam_set_item(), the PAM conversation function will be used to prompt the user for the user name with  the
       string  "prompt". If prompt is  NULL, then pam_get_item() is called and the value of PAM_USER_PROMPT is used for prompting. If the value of
       PAM_USER_PROMPT is  NULL, the following default prompt is used:

	 Please enter user name:

       After the user name is gathered by the conversation function, pam_set_item() is called to set the value of  PAM_USER. By convention, appli-
       cations	that  need to prompt for a user name should  call pam_set_item() and set the value of PAM_USER_PROMPT before calling pam_authenti-
       cate(). The service module's pam_sm_authenticate() function will then call pam_get_user() to prompt for the user name.

       Note that certain  PAM service modules, such as a smart card module, may override the value of	PAM_USER_PROMPT  and  pass  in	their  own
       prompt.	Applications  that  call  pam_authenticate() multiple times should set the value of  PAM_USER to  NULL with  pam_set_item() before
       calling pam_authenticate(), if they want the user to be prompted  for  a  new  user  name  each	time.  The  value  of  user  retrieved	by
       pam_get_user() should not be modified or freed.	The item will be released by pam_end().

RETURN VALUES
       Upon  success, pam_get_user() returns  PAM_SUCCESS; otherwise it returns an error code. Refer to pam(3PAM) for information on error related
       return values.

ATTRIBUTES
       See attributes(5) for description of the following attributes:

       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |      ATTRIBUTE TYPE	     |	    ATTRIBUTE VALUE	   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Interface Stability	     | Stable			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |MT-Level		     |MT-Safe with exceptions	   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+

SEE ALSO
       pam(3PAM),  pam_authenticate(3PAM),  pam_end(3PAM),  pam_get_item(3PAM),   pam_set_item(3PAM),	pam_sm(3PAM),	pam_sm_authenticate(3PAM),
       pam_start(3PAM), attributes(5)

NOTES
       The interfaces in  libpam are MT-Safe only if each thread within the multithreaded application uses its own PAM handle.

SunOS 5.11							    13 Oct 1998 						pam_get_user(3PAM)