Endpoint Administration Guide for UNIX › Using UNIX Exits › CA Access Control Kernel Loader Exits › How the Kernel Loading Exits Work

How the Kernel Loading Exits Work

To let you control operating system and third-party processes, CA Access Control lets you automatically make calls to UNIX exits when loading the CA Access Control kernel extension.

When you run SEOS_load, CA Access Control performs the following actions:

1. Looks for programs in the following directory:

   ACInstallDir/exits/LOAD
   

2. Selects all the programs that have file names of the following format:

   SEOS_load_string.always
   

   Where string can be any descriptive strings.

3. Executes, in lexicographical order, each file it found in the directory ACInstallDir/exits/LOAD:

   SEOS_load_string.always -pre
   

   Each file is executed with the -pre parameter so that you can write your exits to detect the parameter and perform the actions required before the kernel is loaded.

   Note: If the exit returns a nonzero value, CA Access Control kills the exit process, displays an error message, and aborts the kernel loading.

4. Loads the kernel (SEOS_syscall).
5. Executes, in lexicographical order, each file it found in the directory ACInstallDir/exits/LOAD:

   SEOS_load_string.always -post
   

   Each file is executed with the -post parameter so that you can write your exits to detect the parameter and perform the actions required after the kernel is loaded.

   Note: If the exit returns a nonzero value, CA Access Control kills the exit process and displays an error message. Having already been loaded, the CA Access Control kernel remains loaded.