au_preselect() determines whether or not the audit event event is preselected against the binary preselection mask pointed to by mask_p (usually obtained by a call to getaudit(2)). au_preselect() looks up the classes associated with event in audit_event(4) and compares them with the classes in mask_p. If the classes associated with event match the classes in the specified portions of the binary preselection mask pointed to by mask_p, the event is said to be preselected.

sorf indicates whether the comparison is made with the success portion, the failure portion or both portions of the mask pointed to by mask_p.

The following are the valid values of sorf:

AU_PRS_SUCCESS

Compare the event class with the success portion of the preselection mask.

AU_PRS_FAILURE

Compare the event class with the failure portion of the preselection mask.

AU_PRS_BOTH

Compare the event class with both the success and failure portions of the preselection mask.

flag tells au_preselect() how to read the audit_event(4) database. Upon initial invocation, au_preselect() reads the audit_event(4) database and allocates space in an internal cache for each entry with malloc(3C). In subsequent invocations, the value of flag determines where au_preselect() obtains audit event information. The following are the valid values of flag:

AU_PRS_REREAD

Get audit event information by searching the audit_event(4) database.

AU_PRS_USECACHE

Get audit event information from internal cache created upon the initial invocation. This option is much faster.

au_preselect() returns:

0

event is not preselected.

1

event is preselected.

-1

An error occurred. au_preselect() couldn't allocate memory or couldn't find event in the audit_event(4) database.

/etc/security/audit_class

maps audit class number to audit class names and descriptions

/etc/security/audit_event

maps audit even number to audit event names and associates

See attributes(5) for a description of the following attributes:

bsmconv(1M), getaudit(2), au_open(3BSM), getauclassent(3BSM), getauevent(3BSM), malloc(3C), audit_class(4), audit_event(4), attributes(5)

au_preselect() is normally called prior to constructing and writing an audit record. If the event is not preselected, the overhead of constructing and writing the record can be saved.

The functionality described in this man page is available only if the Basic Security Module (BSM) has been enabled. See bsmconv(1M) for more information.