TMOUT parameter

[Dan Klayer_1]

I'm using the ksh TMOUT parameter in certain users' .profile to log them off
after a given period of inactivity. The users connect to the system (HP-UX
10.20) via telnet. If I check them using who or last, their idle time far
exceeds the limit I set in TMOUT. Any ideas why this is not working properly?
Is there some other parameter that could be interfering with or cancelling the
TMOUT?

Thanks,
Dan Klayer

[Paul Hite_2]

TMOUT affects how the shell itself operates. So if someone is sitting at a
shell prompt too long, they get logged out.

But if they, for instance, run the vi editor and then walk away, TMOUT does no
good. The vi editor ignores TMOUT. While any program could obtain TMOUT and
respect it, none except the shell do (as far as I know).

Even if they did, the editor would probably just exit and thus the shell would
then start a second TMOUT period.