who issue

[Carl Munnelly]

I have a user who has logged off but upon attempting to log back in getting told already logged on.

I can't increase number of sessiona allowed (security reason).

User appears in who but has no processes or tty assigned
see output
node> who|grep user
user ttyp2 Aug 24 10:12
node>ps -ef|grep ttyp2
root 18398 18272 1 13:39:15 ttyp1 0:00 grep ttyp2

[Robert-Jan Goossens_1 · Accepted solution]

Hi Carl,

I'm wondering if this can be caused by a corrupt utmp file.

Europe
http://www8.itrc.hp.com/service/cki/docDisplay.do?docLocale=en&docId=emr_na-c00996326-2

US
http://www1.itrc.hp.com/service/cki/docDisplay.do?docLocale=en&docId=emr_na-c00996326-2

Title: finger(1), who(1), w(1) wrong output due to corrupted /etc/utmp or /etc/utmpx file
Document ID: emr_na-c00996326-2

Regards,
Robert-Jan

[A. Clay Stephenson]

You really need to rethink your design because the who command should really be thought of as a "best guess" by the system --- and this is not unique to HP-UX but applies to all flavors of UNIX. The much more reliable method of doing what you are trying to do is to examine the process table (ps).

[Carl Munnelly]

It is due to utmp issue, sorry it was that long since last dealt with this I couldn't remember the file I need to check

[A. Clay Stephenson]

Of course it was a utmp or wtmp issue; that's the nature of the beast and the problem is going to re-occur. Again, these mechanisms should be thought of as "best guess" rather than who is actually on the system.

[Bill Hassell]

> I have a user who has logged off but upon attempting to log back in getting told already logged on.

The code that is determining the user is logged on needs a rewrite. In other words, don't use the who command. If you want to accurately see what a user is running, use ps -u. You may need to refine the search because ps -u finds every process (cron, at, batch, etc) that is owned by the named user. If you assume that who is wrong, you will not be disappointed.

[Carl Munnelly]

I am aware of issue but am restricted by business practises. I would ordinarily use the ps method but that isn't company policy and I have to work within them.
I couldn't remember the system file that I needed to investigate.