topic Re: yet another utmp question in Operating System - HP-UX

yet another utmp question

raam narayan — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:35:09 GMT

HP-UX B.11.23 ia64
Well, I observed utmp file is not getting updated. And whenever a login/logout is happening, the utmpx file is being updated.

who,w commands are working perfect.

my question is that possible utmp not getting updated and "who" working proparly?

in that case from where it is fetching the "idle time"? (who -u)

thanks

Re: yet another utmp question

Wouter Jagers — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:56:09 GMT

I think the man page of utmpd might explain:

"utmpd, user accounting database daemon, manages the user accounting database which is the database of currently logged-in users. This was previously maintained by /etc/utmp and /etc/utmpx files on HP-UX."

A bit further, it states:

"utmpd(1M) takes care of synchronizing the legacy /etc/utmpx file and its own in-memory database. The synchronization is bi-directional from the utmpd's database to the /etc/utmpx and from the /etc/utmpx file to utmpd's database. However, this synchronization does not happen in real time. There is a time lag which could span from a few seconds on a lightly loaded system to a few minutes on a heavily loaded system."

Always worth checking manpages.. things change all the time :-)

Cheers
Wout

Re: yet another utmp question

Kapil Jha — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:43:48 GMT

http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?admit=109447626+1255484395558+28353475&threadId=782839

I think this gonna help you out, please look at previous threads they are pretty useful ;)

BR,
Kapil+

Re: yet another utmp question

Suraj K Sankari — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 04:50:43 GMT

Hi,

Read the manpage of command "fwtmp & wtmpfix" which transfer wtmp-like file into ascii format.

Suraj

Re: yet another utmp question

Dennis Handly — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 05:50:38 GMT

>is that possible utmp not getting updated and "who" working properly?

As Wouter said, who(1) doesn't use utmp, it talks to utmpd(1M).

Re: yet another utmp question

Wouter Jagers — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 08:05:39 GMT

Indeed, the manual page says that you don't need to worry.

It says that nowadays the utmpd daemon keeps the database of currently logged-in users in memory, and the files are "old stuff". That's why everything works fine.

Cheers

Re: yet another utmp question

raam narayan — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 11:47:43 GMT

wout,

thankyou for the info on utmpd.

i found in utmpd man that "getuts" should be used for add,update or query the log information.

getuts is having all the values but "last access time". from which, we can be able to calculate the idle time. it is having only entry time field(ut_tv).

any idea on how to fetch the "last access time" to calculate idle time?.

-R

Re: yet another utmp question

Dennis Handly — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 07:41:59 GMT

>any idea on how to fetch the "last access time" to calculate idle time?

You created another thread:
http://forums.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1378982

Re: yet another utmp question

raam narayan — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 08:05:49 GMT

Hi Dennis,

Actually i waited for some time for reply in this thread. I thought the thread title is some what not related the question on my mind. So I created another thread.

Sorry for the Inconvenience caused.

Re: yet another utmp question

raam narayan — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 08:06:36 GMT

Closing the thread.