CONSOLEHELPER(8)                                                                                                CONSOLEHELPER(8)



NAME
       consolehelper - A wrapper that helps console users run system programs

SYNOPSIS
       progname [ options ]

DESCRIPTION
       consolehelper  is a tool that makes it easy for console users to run system programs, doing authentication via PAM (which
       can be set up to trust all console users or to ask for a password at the system administrator's discretion).  When possi-
       ble,  the  authentication is done graphically; otherwise, it is done within the text console from which consolehelper was
       started.

       It is intended to be completely transparent.  This means that the user will never run the consolehelper program directly.
       Instead, programs like /sbin/shutdown are paired with a link from /usr/bin/shutdown to /usr/bin/consolehelper.  Then when
       non-root users (specifically, users without /sbin in their path, or /sbin after /usr/bin) call  the  "shutdown"  program,
       consolehelper  will  be  invoked to authenticate the action and then invoke /sbin/shutdown.  (consolehelper itself has no
       priviledges; it calls the userhelper(8) program do the real work.)

       consolehelper requires that a PAM configuration for every managed program exist.  So to make /sbin/foo  or  /usr/sbin/foo
       managed,  you  need to create a link from /usr/bin/foo to /usr/bin/consolehelper and create the file /etc/pam.d/foo, nor-
       mally using the pam_console(8) PAM module.

OPTIONS
       This program has no command line options of its own; it passes all command line options on to the program it is calling.

SEE ALSO
       userhelper(8)

AUTHOR
       Michael K. Johnson <johnsonmATredhat.com>



Red Hat Software                                          18 March 1999                                         CONSOLEHELPER(8)