acct(2) [netbsd man page]

ACCT(2) 						      BSD System Calls Manual							   ACCT(2)

NAME

     acct -- enable or disable process accounting

LIBRARY

     Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS

     #include <unistd.h>

     int
     acct(const char *file);

DESCRIPTION

     The acct() call enables or disables the collection of system accounting records.  If file is NULL, accounting is disabled.  If file is an
     existing, NUL-terminated, pathname, record collection is enabled, and for every process initiated which terminates under normal conditions an
     accounting record is appended to file.  Abnormal conditions of termination are reboots or other fatal system problems.  Records for processes
     which never terminate can not be produced by acct().

     For more information on the record structure used by acct(), see /usr/include/sys/acct.h and acct(5).

     This call is permitted only to the super-user.

NOTES

     Accounting is automatically disabled when the file system the accounting file resides on runs out of space; it is enabled when space once
     again becomes available.  For this purpose, acct() creates a kernel thread called ``acctwatch''.

RETURN VALUES

     On success, zero is returned.  Otherwise, -1 is returned and errno is set to indicate the error.

ERRORS

     acct() will fail if one of the following is true:

     [EACCES]		Search permission is denied for a component of the path prefix, or the path name is not a regular file.

     [EFAULT]		file points outside the process's allocated address space.

     [EIO]		An I/O error occurred while reading from or writing to the file system.

     [ELOOP]		Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname.

     [ENAMETOOLONG]	A component of a pathname exceeded {NAME_MAX} characters, or an entire path name exceeded {PATH_MAX} characters.

     [ENOENT]		The named file does not exist.

     [ENOTDIR]		A component of the path prefix is not a directory.

     [EPERM]		The caller is not the super-user.

     [EROFS]		The named file resides on a read-only file system.

     Also, acct() fails if failed to create kernel thread described above.  See fork(2) for errno value.

SEE ALSO

     fork(2), acct(5), sa(8)

HISTORY

     An acct() function call appeared in Version 7 AT&T UNIX.

BSD
								   June 4, 1993 							       BSD

Check Out this Related Man Page

ACCT(2) 							System Calls Manual							   ACCT(2)

NAME

       acct - turn accounting on or off

SYNOPSIS

       acct(file)
       char *file;

DESCRIPTION

       The system is prepared to write a record in an accounting file for each process as it terminates.  This call, with a null-terminated string
       naming an existing file as argument, turns on accounting; records for each terminating process are appended to  file.   An  argument  of  0
       causes accounting to be turned off.

       The accounting file format is given in acct(5).

       This call is permitted only to the super-user.

NOTES

       Accounting  is  automatically disabled when the file system the accounting file resides on runs out of space; it is enabled when space once
       again becomes available.

RETURN VALUE

       On error -1 is returned.  The file must exist and the call may be exercised only by the super-user.  It is erroneous  to  try  to  turn	on
       accounting when it is already on.

ERRORS

       Acct will fail if one of the following is true:

       [EPERM]	      The caller is not the super-user.

       [ENOTDIR]      A component of the path prefix is not a directory.

       [EINVAL]       The pathname contains a character with the high-order bit set.

       [ENAMETOOLONG] A component of a pathname exceeded 255 characters, or an entire path name exceeded 1023 characters.

       [ENOENT]       The named file does not exist.

       [EACCES]       Search permission is denied for a component of the path prefix, or the path name is not a regular file.

       [ELOOP]	      Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname.

       [EROFS]	      The named file resides on a read-only file system.

       [EFAULT]       File points outside the process's allocated address space.

       [EIO]	      An I/O error occurred while reading from or writing to the file system.

SEE ALSO

       acct(5), sa(8)

BUGS

       No accounting is produced for programs running when a crash occurs.  In particular non-terminating programs are never accounted for.

4th Berkeley Distribution					   May 22, 1986 							   ACCT(2)

Linux and UNIX Man Pages

acct(2) [netbsd man page]

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