view libpam-sys/libpam-sys-consts/README.md @ 161:e9354e655f38

Improve PAM detection docs.
author Paul Fisher <paul@pfish.zone>
date Sun, 13 Jul 2025 16:06:51 -0400
parents 09dff285ff5e
children 180237d0b498
line wrap: on
line source

# `libpam-sys-consts`: Constants for LibPAM

This crate does two primary things:

- Detects which implementation of LibPAM the current machine uses (as part of the build script), and exports that information to downstream crates.
- Exports the constants specific to that version of LibPAM.
  These are located in the `constants` module.

## Handling different PAM implmementations

Different PAM implementations have different constants and some different behaviors.
If you need to change your library's behavior based on PAM implementation, there are a few ways to do so.

### Constants

The current PAM implementation is available in `PamImpl::CURRENT`.
This is present as a string literal macro in `pam_impl_name!`.

### Conditional compilation

This package provides custom `#[cfg]`s to compile based on the current PAM implementation.

First, **enable custom `#[cfg]`s in your build.rs**:

```rust
// build.rs
use libpam_sys_consts::pam_impl;

fn main() {
    pam_impl::enable_pam_impl_cfg();
    
    // everything else you do at build time
}
```

This will then allow you to use the `pam_impl` configuration variable at compile time:

```rust
#[cfg(pam_impl = "LinuxPam")]
fn handle_pam() {
    // do things in a Linux-PAM specific way
}

#[cfg(not(pam_impl = "LinuxPam"))]
fn handle_pam() {
    // do things in another, more different way
}
```

## Configuration

Known implementations of PAM are listed in the `PamImpl` enum, and your currently installed implementation is automatically detected.

If you need to configure this, you can override it **at build time** with the `LIBPAMSYS_IMPL` environment variable:

- Unset or empty (the default): Use the version of PAM most commonly found on the target OS.
  If we don't know what kind of PAM is usually installed on this OS, we fall back to `__installed__`.
- `__installed__`: Looks at the PAM library installed on the current machine.
  If none is recognized, falls back to `XSso`.
- The name of a `PamEnum` entry: The named PAM implementation.
  For instance, `LIBPAMSYS_IMPL=OpenPam cargo build` will build this library for OpenPAM.

## MSRV

This library supports **Rust 1.75**, as the version currently (July 2025) available in Debian Trixie and Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.