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 The SASL Extension for PHP
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 User Documentation
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:Author:        Jon Parise
:Contact:       jon@php.net
:Date:          $Date: 2004/08/11 00:20:02 $
:Revision:      $Revision: 1.1 $

.. contents:: Contents
.. section-numbering::

Frequently Asked Questions
--------------------------

How does the SASL extension relate to the Auth_SASL PEAR package?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The `Auth_SASL`_ PEAR package provides native PHP implementations of many of
the SASL authentication mechanisms.  In theory, those methods could call out
to the SASL extension to compute those strings using the native C library, but
I'm not sure the effort is worth it.  I wouldn't object to the idea if someone
did the work, though.

.. _Auth_SASL: http://pear.php.net/Auth_SASL

Does saslauthd need to be running locally?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
``saslauthd`` needs to be running on the same machine as the SASL client (the
PHP process, in your case).  The libsasl library (that the SASL extension
wraps) will communicate with the ``saslauthd`` process via a local Unix domain
socket.

Can saslauthd be used to authenticate against a remote server?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The ``saslauthd`` process loads the SASL authentication modules and performs
the actual authentication.  This may involve contacting a foreign machine
(such as a remote Kerberos or LDAP server).                     

To complicate things even further, ``saslauthd`` can use `PAM`_ as its
authentication backend, which opens up even more authentication possibilities
(many of which may involve other hosts).

.. _PAM: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/pam/

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