NAME

       pam_exec - PAM module which calls an external command

SYNOPSIS

       pam_exec.so [debug] [expose_authtok] [seteuid] [quiet] [stdout] [log=file] [type=type]
                   command [...]

DESCRIPTION

       pam_exec is a PAM module that can be used to run an external command.

       The child's environment is set to the current PAM environment list, as returned by
       pam_getenvlist(3) In addition, the following PAM items are exported as environment
       variables: PAM_RHOST, PAM_RUSER, PAM_SERVICE, PAM_TTY, PAM_USER and PAM_TYPE, which
       contains one of the module types: account, auth, password, open_session and close_session.

       Commands called by pam_exec need to be aware of that the user can have control over the
       environment.

OPTIONS

       debug
           Print debug information.

       expose_authtok
           During authentication the calling command can read the password from stdin(3). Only
           first PAM_MAX_RESP_SIZE bytes of a password are provided to the command.

       log=file
           The output of the command is appended to file

       type=type
           Only run the command if the module type matches the given type.

       stdout
           Per default the output of the executed command is written to /dev/null. With this
           option, the stdout output of the executed command is redirected to the calling
           application. It's in the responsibility of this application what happens with the
           output. The log option is ignored.

       quiet
           Per default pam_exec.so will echo the exit status of the external command if it fails.
           Specifying this option will suppress the message.

       seteuid
           Per default pam_exec.so will execute the external command with the real user ID of the
           calling process. Specifying this option means the command is run with the effective
           user ID.

MODULE TYPES PROVIDED

       All module types (auth, account, password and session) are provided.

RETURN VALUES

       PAM_SUCCESS
           The external command was run successfully.

       PAM_BUF_ERR
           Memory buffer error.

       PAM_CONV_ERR
           The conversation method supplied by the application failed to obtain the username.

       PAM_INCOMPLETE
           The conversation method supplied by the application returned PAM_CONV_AGAIN.

       PAM_SERVICE_ERR
           No argument or a wrong number of arguments were given.

       PAM_SYSTEM_ERR
           A system error occurred or the command to execute failed.

       PAM_IGNORE
           pam_setcred was called, which does not execute the command. Or, the value given for
           the type= parameter did not match the module type.

EXAMPLES

       Add the following line to /etc/pam.d/passwd to rebuild the NIS database after each local
       password change:

                   password optional pam_exec.so seteuid /usr/bin/make -C /var/yp

       This will execute the command

           make -C /var/yp

       with effective user ID.

SEE ALSO

       pam.conf(5), pam.d(5), pam(7)

AUTHOR

       pam_exec was written by Thorsten Kukuk <kukuk@thkukuk.de> and Josh Triplett
       <josh@joshtriplett.org>.