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<!DOCTYPE section PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.1.2//EN"
"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.1.2/docbookx.dtd">
<section id='pam.conf-desc'>
<para>
When a <emphasis>PAM</emphasis> aware privilege granting application
is started, it activates its attachment to the PAM-API. This
activation performs a number of tasks, the most important being the
reading of the configuration file(s): <filename>/etc/pam.conf</filename>.
Alternatively, this may be the contents of the
<filename>/etc/pam.d/</filename> directory. The presence of this
directory will cause Linux-PAM to ignore
<filename>/etc/pam.conf</filename>.
</para>
<para>
These files list the <emphasis>PAM</emphasis>s that will do the
authentication tasks required by this service, and the appropriate
behavior of the PAM-API in the event that individual
<emphasis>PAM</emphasis>s fail.
</para>
</section>