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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>