6    Authentication

The authenticator.pl script

The Palace authentication daemon is a PERL script called 

authenticator.pl

. It is 

installed with the server software, and resides in 

Palaceroot/bin

. 

M

To start the Authenticator Daemon

1.

Navigate to the directory where you have installed 

authenticator.pl

. 

2.

Type 

perl authenticator.pl &

3.

Start the Palace user software (for Macintosh or Windows 95).

4.

On the client, enter wizard or god mode (see Owner and operator commands on page 

30).

5.

In the client input box, type

  security host:port 

to tell the Palace server where 

the authentication daemon is running.

The default port for the authentication daemon is 2345. You can change the default port 

by editing the 

authenticator.pl 

script. 

Set the user names and passwords of people to connect to your server in the 

Palaceroot/bin/palace_passwd

 text file. These values should be set in the format 

specified below. 

USERNAME:PASSWORD:BLUE

In addition to providing a very simple authenticator engine for use with this Palace, 

the PERL script is intended to provide an example program for those who wish to tie 

into existing authentication databases.

Using a custom authentication daemon

You may use another authentication daemon, but it must respond to the following 

parameters and guidelines.

After querying the client for a user name and password, the server connects to the 

authentication daemon and sends a message in the following format:

        :::\n

The authentication daemon should save, but not interpret the numbers. The Palace 

server uses the numbers to match responses with requests. The password is 

transmitted with the case preserved. The line is terminated with a new line marker.

40

UNIX Palace Server Guide