PAM_ECHO(8)

💬 NAME 💬

okay so bestie, meet pam_echo — the PAM module that's literally just here to print text messages at you. it's the hype-woman of PAM. it says things. that's the whole job. iconic behaviour honestly 🎀

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

pam_echo.so [file=/path/message]

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so the pam_echo PAM module is for printing text messages to inform the user about special things. yes, its entire personality is "yapper" and we love that for it. 💅

now here's the fun part: any sequence that starts with the % character gets interpreted like this 👇

• %H — the name of the remote host (PAM_RHOST).
• %h — the name of the local host.
• %s — the service name (PAM_SERVICE).
• %t — the name of the controlling terminal (PAM_TTY).
• %U — the remote user name (PAM_RUSER).
• %u — the local user name (PAM_USER).

and every other sequence that begins with %? it just expands to the characters following that % character. no cap. it doesn't try to be clever, it just vibe-checks the % and moves on. 🌸

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🌈 OPTIONS 🌈

• file=/path/message — the content of the file /path/message will be printed with the PAM conversion function as PAM_TEXT_INFO. basically: point it at a file, it reads the file, it yells the file at your user. 🫶

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👑 MODULE TYPES PROVIDED 👑

all module types are provided, bestie — auth, account, password and session. all four. main character energy across the board. periodt. ⭐

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💀 RETURN VALUES 💀

• PAM_BUF_ERR — memory buffer error. 😭
• PAM_SUCCESS — message was successfully printed. slay, it did the thing! 🔥
• PAM_IGNORE — the PAM_SILENT flag was given, or the message file does not exist, so no message was printed. it's giving "read the room and said nothing." 🙈

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🍓 EXAMPLES 🍓

for an example of the use of this module, we show how it may be used to print information about good passwords:

password optional pam_echo.so file=/usr/share/doc/good-password.txt
password required pam_unix.so

see how the optional is doing the heavy lifting there? it's the chill one. the required pam_unix.so is the one actually taking notes. 📝

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🧚 SEE ALSO 🧚

pam.conf(8), pam.d(5), pam(8) — go read those too, iykyk. 💜

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🌸 AUTHOR 🌸

Thorsten Kukuk <kukuk@thkukuk.de> — thank you for this tiny legend 🫶

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and that's the whole page bestie!! this was PAM_ECHO(8) from the Linux-PAM Manual, dated 09/27/2026, brought to you by the Linux-PAM girlies. no message left unprinted. mwah 💖✨