<section xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" version="5.0" xml: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 and preferably, the configuration can be set by individual
    configuration files located in a <filename>pam.d</filename> directory.
    The presence of this directory will cause
    <emphasis remap="B">Linux-PAM</emphasis> to
    <emphasis remap="I">ignore</emphasis> <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>