[Solved] pam useflag is "DANGEROUS"?

Gooberpatrol66 · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 20 Jul 2014 Posts: 143

The description for the pam useflag is the following:

https://packages.gentoo.org/useflags/pam

"Add support for PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules)DANGEROUS to arbitrarily flip"

I was wondering what that means, and in what sense pam is "DANGEROUS". I have this flag enabled on all my machines.

eccerr0r · Posted: Tue Sep 28, 2021 4:29 am Post subject:

It's dangerous because it could lock you out of your machine or services if you change it.
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Hu · Moderator Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 21619

Enabled globally is fine, and standard. Disabled globally is probably fine, if you can stand the loss of functionality, and configure accordingly. Arbitrarily flipping it on individual packages, especially if you do not then update their configurations, can be dangerous.

eccerr0r · Posted: Tue Sep 28, 2021 4:01 pm Post subject:

Perhaps the warning explanation for the USE flag requires a period to make it more clear?

- Add support for PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules)DANGEROUS to arbitrarily flip
+ Add support for PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules). DANGEROUS to arbitrarily flip

so it doesn't get read as
x Add support for PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules) - DANGEROUS (to arbitrarily flip)
_________________
Intel Core i7 2700K/Radeon R7 250/24GB DDR3/256GB SSD
What am I supposed watching?

Gooberpatrol66 · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 20 Jul 2014 Posts: 143

I see, thanks.