The gss_inquire_mechs_for_name() function returns the set of mechanisms supported by the GSS-API that may be able to process the specified name. Each mechanism returned will recognize at least one element within the internal name.

Some implementations of the GSS-API may perform this test by checking nametype information contained within the passed name and registration information provided by individual mechanisms. This means that the mech_types set returned by the function may indicate that a particular mechanism will understand the name, when in fact the mechanism would refuse to accept the name as input to gss_canonicalize_name(3GSS), gss_init_sec_context(3GSS), gss_acquire_cred(3GSS), or gss_add_cred(3GSS), due to some property of the name itself rather than the name-type. Therefore, this function should be used only as a pre-filter for a call to a subsequent mechanism-specific function.

The parameter descriptions for gss_inquire_mechs_for_name() follow in alphabetical order:

minor_status

Mechanism-specific status code.

input_name

The name to which the inquiry relates.

mech_types

Set of mechanisms that may support the specified name. The returned OID set must be freed by the caller after use with a call to gss_release_oid_set(3GSS).

The gss_inquire_mechs_for_name() function may return the following status codes:

GSS_S_COMPLETE

Successful completion.

GSS_S_BAD_NAME

The input_name parameter was ill-formed.

GSS_S_BAD_NAMETYPE

The input_name parameter contained an invalid or unsupported type of name.

GSS_S_FAILURE

The underlying mechanism detected an error for which no specific GSS status code is defined. The mechanism-specific status code reported by means of the minor_status parameter details the error condition.

See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

gss_acquire_cred(3GSS), gss_add_cred(3GSS), gss_canonicalize_name(3GSS), gss_init_sec_context(3GSS), gss_release_oid_set(3GSS), attributes(5)

GSS-API Programming Guide