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PAM_ISSUE

Section: Linux-PAM Manual (8)
Updated: 02/02/2026
Index Return to Main Contents
 

NAME

pam_issue - PAM module to add issue file to user prompt  

SYNOPSIS

pam_issue.so [noesc] [issue=issue-file-name]
 

DESCRIPTION

pam_issue is a PAM module to prepend an issue file to the username prompt. It also by default parses escape codes in the issue file similar to some common getty's (using x format).

Recognized escapes:

d

current day

l

name of this tty

m

machine architecture (uname -m)

n

machine's network node hostname (uname -n)

o

domain name of this system

r

release number of operating system (uname -r)

t

current time

s

operating system name (uname -s)

u

number of users currently logged in

U

same as u except it is suffixed with "user" or "users" (eg. "1 user" or "10 users")

v

operating system version and build date (uname -v)
 

OPTIONS

noesc

Turns off escape code parsing.

issue=issue-file-name

The file to output if not using the default.
 

MODULE TYPES PROVIDED

Only the auth module type is provided.  

RETURN VALUES

PAM_BUF_ERR

Memory buffer error.

PAM_IGNORE

The prompt was already changed.

PAM_SERVICE_ERR

A service module error occurred.

PAM_SUCCESS

The new prompt was set successfully.
 

EXAMPLES

Add the following line to /etc/pam.d/login to set the user specific issue at login: 

        auth optional pam_issue.so issue=/etc/issue

 

SEE ALSO

pam.conf(5), pam.d(5), pam(8)  

AUTHOR

pam_issue was written by Ben Collins <bcollins@debian.org>.

 

Index

NAME
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
OPTIONS
MODULE TYPES PROVIDED
RETURN VALUES
EXAMPLES
SEE ALSO
AUTHOR