[PierreV23]

iRODS 5.1.0 added a new scheme called irods, which is like native but supports token based auth

Here is a simplified example of how this new scheme would be used:

import irods.auth
from irods.session import iRODSSession

# first auth with password
token = []
with iRODSSession(..., password="<password>", authentication_scheme="irods") as ses:
    ses.set_auth_option_for_scheme("irods", irods.auth.CLIENT_GET_REQUEST_RESULT, token)
    ses.collections.get("/tempZone/home/<user>")

# second auth with just token
with iRODSSession(..., authentication_scheme="irods") as ses:
    ses.set_auth_option_for_scheme("irods", "session_token", token[0])
    ses.collections.get("/tempZone/home/<user>")

password_storage_mode needs to be set properly on the irods server, this can't be done via the server_config but it can be done via the CLI:iadmin set_grid_configuration authentication password_storage_mode both. both means both native and irods auth schemes can be used.

After setting this setting to both, the passwords of existing users need to be reset: iadmin moduser <user> password <password>

The other password_storage_mode options are legacy (for just the native scheme) and hashed (for just the irods scheme), again changing storage mode only affects passwords set afterwards. By default it's legacy.