Re: NSS and PAM - What's the relation?
On 10/5/06, Grok Mogger <linuximp@gmail.com> wrote:
Just what the title says. What is the relation between NSS and PAM?
I understand that NSS basically tells C libraries where to get information.
What's confusing is that two of the entries in the nsswitch.conf file are
"passwd" and "shadow". Are these entries for programs that don't use PAM,
but instead have their own internal authentication mechanisms written in C?
This is how I understand it: nsswitch configures where the databases
with the given information are. (such as the 'passwd' database) PAM
only provides authentication and, to some extent, user session setup.
These databases however contain other information that programs can
need, such as the groups, the uid, etc. So while PAM can authenticate
against the same database, it is not closely related to nsswitch.
pam_unix probably uses nsswitch to find out where it can find the
information it needs though.
hope that's correct,
Wim
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