finger problem

[Marcin_Chmielewski]

Hi,
I have problem with finger
Sometimes finger return
message like:
finger: error STATing /dev/telnet/Ph264
I check /dev/telnet directory
and this special file is not exist but smbd is working on this terminal (I make "who" command).
This situation takes some time
(several munites or hours) and return to normal.
What is it ?

Marcin

[John Carr_2]

Hi

Is this a big server with lots of users ?

try a simple version of running the command

finger -m login_name

cheers
John.

[Marcin_Chmielewski]

yes this is v2500 with many users
finger -m login_name returns
finger: error /dev/telnet/...

Marcin

[John Carr_2]

Hi

Im suspecting that one of the files which finger looks at is corrupted in some way.

/etc/utmp
/var/adm/wtmp
/etc/passwd

I would start by making copies of each of these files then cat /dev/null > utmp & wtmp

use pwck to check the passwd file.

John.

[Marcin_Chmielewski]

Thanks John

This could by a utmp problem
but why this special file
don't exist (device for that terminal) ?

Marcin

[S.K. Chan]

I've instead seen a..
finger: error STATing /dev/tty
error before not "/dev/telnet" and to get around that I increased the kernel parameter npty to bump up the # of pseudo terminal. In your case I tend to agree with John that you might have a "bad" utmp or wtmp file. If you decided to zero'ed those file just keep in mind that unless you reboot the system, there will be descrepancies in the "who" command.

[John Carr_2]

Hi

can you issue command "users" and see if this reports any problem. This command only uses the /etc/utmp file.

The error you are getting is very strange and Im starting to wonder if you have some sort of stale telnet session if this is the right terminolgy.

I take it a reboot is probably out of the question ?

[John Carr_2]

Hi

can you check the output of this to see if there is entries in utmp.

/usr/sbin/acct/fwtmp < /etc/utmp | grep Ph264

John.

[Marcin_Chmielewski]

Hi again

utmp looks good - there is an entry for that terminal,
Is any limit for wtmp file ?

Marcin