Hello All,

I've spent the last few days reading as much as I can about the configuration of Linux-PAM, but it seems as though no matter how much I read about it, specifically the module types (auth, account, password, session) and control keys (requisite, required, sufficient, option), I just cannot wrap my head around the concepts.

Obviously I know what the syntax values are, but I come away with more questions than answers. For example, what, exactly, do each of those module types and control keys do, and when and why would I use them? How and what is the purpose of the modules on each line (/lib/security/pam_*.so), and again, why and when would I want to use them, and which ones do I know to use?

Can anyone help me out, or point me to a (well-written and easy-to-understand) document that might help walk me through the functionality of a PAM configuration file? I've read the documents on the Linux-PAM site (System Administrators Guide) as well as a few other documents I've searched the web for. I feel completely lost on this topic, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You,

- skubik.

Few thoughts.
You don't have to use PAM.
Took me more than a few days to wrap my hands around it. Just keep reading.
Slackware is one distro that doesn't use it.
After learning a lot about it, I decided I could live without PAM.
Some links if you haven't see them.
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/libs...-html/pam.html
http://linux-rep.fnal.gov/RHL-5.0-Us...al/doc080.html
http://corporate.linux.com/howtos/Us...WTO/x101.shtml

Thanks for your input -X-,

I haven't checked out the links you provided yet, that'll be a 'tomorrow project'.
Yes, I am using Slackware, and I'm aware that PAM is not configured as part of Slackware by default. The reason I decided to attempt to learn how to administer and configure PAM is because I am attempting to setup the vsftpd FTP server for use with Virtual Users. Unfortunately, the only way that vsftpd seems to support virtual users is via PAM. Obviously since it's not part of Slackware, it causes a bit of a problem. :^)
So I decided that I would undertake a personal learning project to learn how to configure PAM, and implement it on my Slackware system.

Any additional thoughts, ideas, tips, etc. are appreciated. :^)

Thank You,

- skubik.

So did you have success with PAM yet?
I am going through the steps so that I can authenticate user logins via OpenLDAP.
I'm somewhat curious as to why Slackware distribution does not include PAM; could it be there are other methods of permitting directory-based authentication I am overlooking?
>M