PAM_ISSUE(8)

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version 1.7.3 · 17 versions
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✨ PAM_ISSUE 💖

okay bestie, gather round, because this is pam_issue — it lives in section 8 of the Linux-PAM manual and it's literally the module that puts your lil issue file up top of the username prompt 🎀 no cap

🌸 NAME 🌸

pam_issue — a PAM module that adds an issue file to your user prompt 🫶

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

pam_issue.so [noesc] [issue=issue-file-name]

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

So pam_issue is a PAM module whose whole job is to prepend an issue file to the username prompt 💖 and like, by default it also parses escape codes in that issue file, same vibe as some common getty's — and yes it uses the \x format, iykyk ✨

Here's the escape codes it recognizes, they're giving little magic spells fr fr:

  • \d — current day 📅
  • \l — name of this tty 🖥️
  • \m — machine architecture (uname -m)
  • \n — machine's network node hostname (uname -n)
  • \o — domain name of this system 🌐
  • \r — release number of operating system (uname -r)
  • \t — current time ⏰
  • \s — operating system name (uname -s)
  • \u — number of users currently logged in 👥
  • \U — same as \u except it is suffixed with "user" or "users" (eg. "1 user" or "10 users") 🌈
  • \v — operating system version and build date (uname -v)

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

  • noesc — turns off escape code parsing 🙈 like, we're not doing the magic today
  • issue=issue-file-name — the file to output if you're not using the default 📄

👑 MODULE TYPES PROVIDED 👑

Only the auth module type is provided. that's it, that's the whole list, she's a one-trick pony and she ate 💅

⭐ RETURN VALUES ⭐

  • PAM_BUF_ERR — memory buffer error 😭
  • PAM_IGNORE — the prompt was already changed 💀
  • PAM_SERVICE_ERR — a service module error occurred 🚨
  • PAM_SUCCESS — the new prompt was set successfully 🎉

🦋 EXAMPLES 🦋

Add the following line to /etc/pam.d/login to set the user specific issue at login:

auth optional pam_issue.so issue=/etc/issue

slay, that's it, that's the whole config 🫶

💜 SEE ALSO 💜

pam.conf(5), pam.d(5), pam(8)

🌈 AUTHOR 🌈

pam_issue was written by Ben Collins <bcollins@debian.org> 💖

no cap, every flag and every escape stayed exactly where it was supposed to be. we keep the facts, we just made them cute ✨

and that's the tea, bestie — this page came to you from Linux-PAM, dated 09/27/2026, under the name PAM_ISSUE(8) 🎀 periodt 💅

📦 where this page comes from