The PAM authentication plugin checks at initialization time whether the AUTHENTICATION_PAM_LOG environment value is set (the value does not matter). If so, the plugin enables logging of diagnostic messages to the standard output. These messages may be helpful for debugging PAM-related problems that occur when the plugin performs authentication.

Some messages include reference to PAM plugin source files and line numbers, which enables plugin actions to be tied more closely to the location in the code where they occur.

The following transcript demonstrates the kind of information produced by enabling logging. It resulted from a successful proxy authentication attempt.

entering auth_pam_server
entering auth_pam_next_token
auth_pam_next_token:reading at [cups,admin=writer,everyone=reader], sep=[,]
auth_pam_next_token:state=PRESPACE, ptr=[cups,admin=writer,everyone=reader],
out=[]
auth_pam_next_token:state=IDENT, ptr=[cups,admin=writer,everyone=reader],
out=[]
auth_pam_next_token:state=AFTERSPACE, ptr=[,admin=writer,everyone=reader],
out=[cups]
auth_pam_next_token:state=DELIMITER, ptr=[,admin=writer,everyone=reader],
out=[cups]
auth_pam_next_token:state=DONE, ptr=[,admin=writer,everyone=reader],
out=[cups]
leaving auth_pam_next_token on
/Users/gkodinov/mysql/work/x-5.5.16-release-basket/release/plugin/pam-authentication-plugin/src/parser.c:191
auth_pam_server:password 12345qq received
auth_pam_server:pam_start rc=0
auth_pam_server:pam_set_item(PAM_RUSER,gkodinov) rc=0
auth_pam_server:pam_set_item(PAM_RHOST,localhost) rc=0
entering auth_pam_server_conv
auth_pam_server_conv:PAM_PROMPT_ECHO_OFF [Password:] received
leaving auth_pam_server_conv on
/Users/gkodinov/mysql/work/x-5.5.16-release-basket/release/plugin/pam-authentication-plugin/src/authentication_pam.c:257
auth_pam_server:pam_authenticate rc=0
auth_pam_server:pam_acct_mgmt rc=0
auth_pam_server:pam_setcred(PAM_ESTABLISH_CRED) rc=0
auth_pam_server:pam_get_item rc=0
auth_pam_server:pam_setcred(PAM_DELETE_CRED) rc=0
entering auth_pam_map_groups
entering auth_pam_walk_namevalue_list
auth_pam_walk_namevalue_list:reading at: [admin=writer,everyone=reader]
entering auth_pam_next_token
auth_pam_next_token:reading at [admin=writer,everyone=reader], sep=[=]
auth_pam_next_token:state=PRESPACE, ptr=[admin=writer,everyone=reader], out=[]
auth_pam_next_token:state=IDENT, ptr=[admin=writer,everyone=reader], out=[]
auth_pam_next_token:state=AFTERSPACE, ptr=[=writer,everyone=reader],
out=[admin]
auth_pam_next_token:state=DELIMITER, ptr=[=writer,everyone=reader],
out=[admin]
auth_pam_next_token:state=DONE, ptr=[=writer,everyone=reader], out=[admin]
leaving auth_pam_next_token on
/Users/gkodinov/mysql/work/x-5.5.16-release-basket/release/plugin/pam-authentication-plugin/src/parser.c:191
auth_pam_walk_namevalue_list:name=[admin]
entering auth_pam_next_token
auth_pam_next_token:reading at [writer,everyone=reader], sep=[,]
auth_pam_next_token:state=PRESPACE, ptr=[writer,everyone=reader], out=[]
auth_pam_next_token:state=IDENT, ptr=[writer,everyone=reader], out=[]
auth_pam_next_token:state=AFTERSPACE, ptr=[,everyone=reader], out=[writer]
auth_pam_next_token:state=DELIMITER, ptr=[,everyone=reader], out=[writer]
auth_pam_next_token:state=DONE, ptr=[,everyone=reader], out=[writer]
leaving auth_pam_next_token on
/Users/gkodinov/mysql/work/x-5.5.16-release-basket/release/plugin/pam-authentication-plugin/src/parser.c:191
walk, &error_namevalue_list:value=[writer]
entering auth_pam_map_group_to_user
auth_pam_map_group_to_user:pam_user=gkodinov, name=admin, value=writer
examining member root
examining member gkodinov
substitution was made to mysql user writer
leaving auth_pam_map_group_to_user on
/Users/gkodinov/mysql/work/x-5.5.16-release-basket/release/plugin/pam-authentication-plugin/src/authentication_pam.c:118
auth_pam_walk_namevalue_list:found mapping
leaving auth_pam_walk_namevalue_list on
/Users/gkodinov/mysql/work/x-5.5.16-release-basket/release/plugin/pam-authentication-plugin/src/parser.c:270
auth_pam_walk_namevalue_list returned 0
leaving auth_pam_map_groups on
/Users/gkodinov/mysql/work/x-5.5.16-release-basket/release/plugin/pam-authentication-plugin/src/authentication_pam.c:171
auth_pam_server:authenticated_as=writer
auth_pam_server: rc=0
leaving auth_pam_server on
/Users/gkodinov/mysql/work/x-5.5.16-release-basket/release/plugin/pam-authentication-plugin/src/authentication_pam.c:429