Date: Sat, 3 May 2003 02:33:24 -0400 From: Garance A Drosihn <drosih@rpi.edu> To: Eric Dedrick <dedrick@dsl-146-127.resnet.purdue.edu>, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org, freebsd-bugs@freebsd.org Subject: Re: ac, wtmp, newsyslog Message-ID: <p0521060bbad90efbbff5@[128.113.24.47]> In-Reply-To: <20030502123655.V670@dsl-146-127.resnet.purdue.edu> References: <20030502123655.V670@dsl-146-127.resnet.purdue.edu>
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At 12:46 PM -0500 5/2/03, Eric Dedrick wrote: >I've currently noticed on my system that logins which straddle >a change in month no longer show up with ac. I haven't looked >at things too closely, but I think it is possible for a user >to remain logged in long enough that they get "forgotten" when >newsyslog rotates wtmp. > >Perhaps wtmp should be rotated by something a little smarter >than newsyslog -- something that will never "forget" about >users with current login sessions? newsyslog is only for rotating files. It has no special knowledge of the contents of the files, and indeed there is no reason it should have. I'm pretty sure the issue comes up any time a person is logged on over the course of a wtmp-rotation. wtmp works by writing a line when you log in, and then updating that line when you log out. If the file is rotated, then there *is* no line to update when you log out. I've heard that there are programs to intelligently-roll a wtmp file, but I've never tracked them down. "We" (freebsd) should probably do something to improve on that for FreeBSD, in our copious spare time... -- Garance Alistair Drosehn = gad@gilead.netel.rpi.edu Senior Systems Programmer or gad@freebsd.org Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute or drosih@rpi.edu
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