sasl_client_start(26 March 2000)

NAME
sasl_client_start - Begin an authentication negotiation

SYNOPSIS
#include <sasl.h>

int sasl_client_start(sasl_conn_t * conn,
		      const char * mechlist,
		      sasl_secret_t * secret,
		      sasl_interact_t ** prompt_need,
		      char ** clientout,
		      unsigned * clientoutlen,
		      const char ** mech);

DESCRIPTION
sasl_client_start() selects a mechanism for authentication and starts the authentication session. The mechlist is the list of mechanisms the client might like to use. The mechanisms in the list are not necessarily supported by the client or even valid. SASL determines which of these to use based upon the security preferences specified earlier. The list of mechanisms is typically a list of mechanisms the server supports acquired from a capability request. If SASL_INTERACT is returned the library needs some values to be filled in before it can proceed. The prompt_need structure will be filled in with requests. The application should fulfill these requests and call sasl_client_start again with identical parameters (the prompt_need parameter will be the same pointer as before but filled in by the application). mechlist is a list of mechanisms the server has available. Punctuation if ignored. secret is the secret from a previous session. This parameter is optional. If SASL_INTERACT is returned prompt_need is filled in with a list of prompts needed to continue. On sucess clientout and clientoutlen is created. It is the initial client response to send to the server. This is allocated by the library and it is the job of the client to send it over the network to the server and free it when it is no longer needed. Any protocal specific encoding (such as base64 encoding) necessary needs to be done by the client. On sucess mech contains the name of the chosen SASL mechanism.

RETURN VALUE
sasl_client_start returns an integer which corresponds to one of the following codes. SASL_CONTINUE indicates sucess and that there are more steps needed in the authentication. All other return codes indicate errors and should either be handled or the authentication session should be quit.

ERRORS

SASL_CONTINUE
    Success. keep going.

SASL_INTERACT
    user interaction needed to fill in prompt_need list

SASL_BADVERS
    Mechanism version mismatch

SASL_BADPARAM
    error in config file

SASL_NOMEM
    not enough memory to complete operation

CONFORMING TO
RFC 2222

SEE ALSO
othersaslstuff