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trippycamper

Member

Registered: 2025-09-22

Posts: 5

Understanding PAM config syntax

Working to try and setup kwallet autologin, and I'm ensuring the PAM config is setup properly with SDDM. My current config is:

#%PAM-1.0

-auth       optional    pam_gnome_keyring.so
-auth       optional    pam_kwallet5.so

account     include     system-login

password    include     system-login
-password   optional    pam_gnome_keyring.so    use_authtok

session     optional    pam_keyinit.so          force revoke
session     include     system-login
-session    optional    pam_gnome_keyring.so    auto_start
-session    optional    pam_kwallet5.so         auto_start

Why are some lines prefixed with a dash? Is this to enable/disable specific lines? The two lines I need to configure the wallet are present, but both preceeded by the dash so I'm curious if I need to remove it for correct configuration. The wallet has not been kind to me. As far as I can see, the wiki page for PAM doesn't mention these dashes which is what brings me here.

Last edited by trippycamper (2025-09-22 15:17:22)

twelveeighty

Member

Registered: 2011-09-04

Posts: 1,411

Re: Understanding PAM config syntax

The explanation is in the man page for pam.conf:

If [...] is prepended with a - character the PAM library will not log to the system log if it is not possible to load the module because it is missing in the system.

trippycamper

Member

Registered: 2025-09-22

Posts: 5

Re: Understanding PAM config syntax

The explanation is in the man page for pam.conf:

If [...] is prepended with a - character the PAM library will not log to the system log if it is not possible to load the module because it is missing in the system.

And now I know where to look in future

Thank you!

seth

Member

From: Don't DM me only for attention

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 70,964

Re: Understanding PAM config syntax

\o/
Please always remember to mark resolved threads by editing your initial posts subject - so others will know that there's no task left, but maybe a solution to find.
Thanks.

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