/BEFORE no longer working with ACCOUNTING

[BoyeDav]

The following used to work, but for some reason it no longer generates any output. If I remove the /BEFORE portion, it gives me everything from the "since" date, but I can't seem to use /BEFORE to specify an end time:

ACCOUNTING /TYPE=PRINT /SUMMARY=USER /REPORT=(PAGES,RECORDS) /sin=01-sep-2006/before=01-oct-2006/output=disk$d:[users.david]userssep2006.lis

What am I missing?

TIA!

[Gregg Parmentier]

Are you sure you haven't started a new accounting file recently? If the file only goes back to October 3rd like mine does, it will look like /before isn't working.

[Volker Halle]

BoyeDav,

welcome to the OpenVMS ITRC forum.

I've tried your command on an OpenVMS Alpha V8.2 system and it seems to work correctly.

I would suggest, that you just try:

$ ACC/TYPE=PRINT/SINCE=1-SEP-2006 and check, whether any print accounting records are shown from SEP-2006.

If so, add the /BEFORE=1-OCT-2006 and check again.

Volker.

[BoyeDav]

$ ACC/TYPE=PRINT/SINCE=1-SEP-2006 works fine. It breaks when I add the /before=01-oct-2006

[Volker Halle]

Which VMS version and architecture ?

Volker.

[Volker Halle]

Could there be a record in ACCOUNTNG.DAT with a bad 'future' date ? Would this stop ACC from scanning further records ?

Try /BEFORE=01-OCT-9999

Volker.

[BoyeDav]

V7.3-2

I think I'm not getting any accounting data from the month of September. If I leave of /before and change the /since dates forward or backward from 0ct-1, the print counts decrease as I go forward, but do not change as I go backward.

I'm a bit new to OpenVMS, so forgive my naivety. Would there be a separate log/file in which the September accounting data might be stored?

[Gregg Parmentier]

Depending upon how you do your startup, you may create a new accounting file at every reboot. Normally the accountng.dat file is in sys$manager.

[Volker Halle]

To find out, when the current accounting file has been created, use:

$ ACC/TYPE=FILE/FULL

You should see an 'ACCOUNTING FILE backward pointer' entry including the full name of the previous file. The Finish Time will tell you the time the new (=current) accounting file has been created.

Some system managers create a new accounting file every month or so. You would need to find the old file. It may be present as SYS$MANAGER:ACCOUNTNG.DAT;-1 or may have been copied somewhere else.

Volker.

[BoyeDav]

I think that's it. It looks like the accounting.dat file is being cycled at the end of each month. Is there a way to tell specify a different accounting file? I looked in help, but none of the options appeared to address that, although perhaps I'm misunderstanding.

[Volker Halle]

Sure, specify the accounting file name as the first parameter on the ACC command line:

$ ACC/whatever-qualifiers-you-like dev:[dir]accountng.dat;n

See $ HELP ACC Usage_Summary

Volker.

[BoyeDav]

excellent. I was so busy looking at the options that I missed the parameter to specify the accounting file. Thanks!