Appendix D - Linux-PAM
User Guide
339
The Linux-PAM Configuration File
Linux-PAM is designed to provide the system administrator with a great deal of flexibility in
configuring the privilege-granting applications of their system. The local configuration of
those aspects of system security controlled by Linux-PAM is contained in one of two places:
either the single system file /etc/pam.conf or the /etc/pam.d/ directory. In this section we dis-
cuss the correct syntax of and generic options respected by entries to these files.
Configuration File Syntax
The reader should note that the Linux-PAM-specific tokens in this file are case-insensitive. The
module paths, however, are case-sensitive since they indicate a file’s name and reflect the
case-dependence of typical Linux file systems. The case-sensitivity of the arguments to any
given module is defined for each module in turn.
In addition to the lines described below, there are two special characters provided for the
convenience of the system administrator:
A general configuration line of the /etc/pam.conf file has the following form:
Service-name module-type control-flag module-path arguments
The meaning of each of these tokens is explained below. The second (and more recently
adopted) way of configuring Linux-PAM is via the contents of the /etc/pam.d/ directory. After
the meaning of the above tokens is explained, the method will be described.
#
Comments are preceded by this character and extend to the next end-of-line.
\
This character extends the configuration lines.
