OPENPAM_LOG(3)

✨ openpam_log(3) — the cute little syslog gatekeeper ✨

Okay bestie, gather round, because this is openpam_log from the Library Functions Manual and she is lowkey the most useful icon in the whole OpenPAM friend group 💅

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🌸 NAME 🌸

openpam_log — logs a message through syslog 💖 periodt

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

#include <sys/types.h>
#include <security/pam_appl.h>
#include <security/openpam.h>

void
openpam_log(int level, const char *fmt, ...);

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So the openpam_log() function logs messages using syslog(3). That's it, that's the vibe. ✨ She's primarily intended for internal use by the library and modules — like, she's a backstage queen, not the main character of your app, iykyk 🫶

The level argument tells you how important the message is (a literal vibe check for your log 📊). Here are the levels, and no, we're not skipping any, there are exactly five:

• PAM_LOG_LIBDEBUG — Debugging messages. For internal use only 🙈 like don't touch, bestie, that's the library's private business.
• PAM_LOG_DEBUG — Debugging messages too, but these ones are normally not logged unless the global integer variable openpam_debug is set to a non-zero value, in which case they get logged with a syslog(3) priority of LOG_DEBUG 🔥 So if openpam_debug is zero or unset, silence. If it's non-zero, boom, debug messages hit the log.
• PAM_LOG_VERBOSE — Information about the progress of the authentication process, or other non-essential messages 🌈 These get logged with a syslog(3) priority of LOG_INFO.
• PAM_LOG_NOTICE — Messages relating to non-fatal errors 👀 These get logged with a syslog(3) priority of LOG_NOTICE.
• PAM_LOG_ERROR — Messages relating to serious errors 😭💀 These get logged with a syslog(3) priority of LOG_ERR.

The remaining arguments? They're a printf(3) format string plus the corresponding arguments — so yes, it's giving very much printf energy, format specifiers and all 🎀

And the detail we all need to know: the openpam_log() function does not modify the value of errno 👑 She's respectful. She logs and she leaves your errno exactly where she found it. No cap.

Real talk though: remember PAM_LOG_DEBUG messages are normally not logged unless openpam_debug is non-zero. That's the whole conditional, bestie, don't forget it 💜

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⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

pam(3), printf(3), syslog(3) — go read those too, they're all linked in this little universe 🧚

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🌟 STANDARDS 🌟

The openpam_log() function is an OpenPAM extension 💫 so yeah, she's extra, but she's our extra.

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💖 AUTHORS 💖

Big credit moment, because we always credit the icons 🫶

The openpam_log() function and this manual page were developed for the FreeBSD Project by ThinkSec AS and Network Associates Laboratories, the Security Research Division of Network Associates, Inc. under DARPA/SPAWAR contract N66001-01-C-8035 (“CBOSS”), as part of the DARPA CHATS research program. That's a lot of words but every single one of them eats 🔥

The OpenPAM library is maintained by Dag-Erling Smørgrav <des@des.no> — absolute legend behavior 👑

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🍓 cute sign-off 🍓

This lil beauty comes to you from Debian, dated June 27, 2023, and it's the OPENPAM_LOG(3) page from the Library Functions Manual — mwah, love that for us 💋✨