pam_console_apply

Section: System Administrator's Manual (8)
Updated: 2005/5/2
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NAME

pam_console_apply - set or revoke permissions for users at the system console  

SYNOPSIS

pam_console_apply [-f <fstab file>] [-c <console.perms file>] [-r] [-t <tty>] [-s] [-d] [<device file> ...]  

DESCRIPTION

pam_console_apply is a helper executable which sets or resets permissions on device nodes.
If /var/run/console.lock exists, pam_console_apply will grant permissions to the user listed therein. If the lock file does not exist, permissions are reset according to defaults set in console.perms files, normally configured to set permissions on devices so that root owns them.

When initializing its configuration it first parses the /etc/security/console.perms file and then it searches for files ending with the .perms suffix in the /etc/security/console.perms.d directory. These files are parsed in the lexical order in "C" locale. Permission rules are appended to a global list, console and device class definitions override previous definitions of the same class.  

ARGUMENTS

-c
Load other console.perms file than the default one.
-f
Load other fstab file than the default one (/etc/fstab).
-r
Signals pam_console_apply to reset permissions. The default is to set permissions so that the user listed in /var/run/console.lock has access to the devices, and to reset permissions if no such file exists.
-t
Use <tty> to match console class in console.perms file. The default is tty0.
-s
Write error messages to the system log instead of stderr.
-d
Log/display messages useful for debugging.

The optional <device file> arguments constrain what files should be affected by pam_console_apply. If they aren't specified permissions are changed on all files specified in the console.perms file.  

FILES

/var/run/console.lock
/etc/security/console.perms
/etc/security/console.perms.d/50-default.perms  

SEE ALSO

pam_console(8)
console.perms(5)
 

BUGS

Let's hope not, but if you find any, please report them via the "Bug Track" link at http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/  

AUTHORS

Nalin Dahyabhai <nalin@redhat.com>, using code shamelessly stolen from parts of pam_console.
Support of console.perms.d and other improvements by Tomas Mraz <tmraz@redhat.com>.