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Full Discussion: wtmp file
Operating Systems AIX wtmp file Post 302201180 by bakunin on Saturday 31st of May 2008 04:14:59 PM
Old 05-31-2008
/var/adm/wtmp holds accounting information. You will get a detailed explanation by reading the manpage for it (yes, there is one): "man wtmp".

You can of course delete it, but chances are you do your filesystem no good, because /var/adm/wtmp is constantly being written to. Also you will change the inode of the file which some system routines won't like very much.

If you want to trim it with the system running use:

Code:
cat /dev/null > /var/adm/wtmp

To remedy your problem: boot in maintenance mode, remove the file, reboot. The file will be created correctly. From then on you can use the above mentioned procedure to trim it.

I hope this helps.

bakunin
 

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LEARN ABOUT OPENSOLARIS

utmpx

utmpx(4)							   File Formats 							  utmpx(4)

NAME

       utmpx, wtmpx - utmpx and wtmpx database entry formats

SYNOPSIS

       #include <utmpx.h>
       /var/adm/utmpx
       /var/adm/wtmpx

DESCRIPTION

       The utmpx and wtmpx files are extended database files that have superseded the obsolete utmp and wtmp database files.

       The  utmpx database contains user access and accounting information for commands such as who(1), write(1), and login(1). The wtmpx database
       contains the history of user access and accounting information for the  utmpx database.

USAGE

       Applications should not access these databases directly, but should use the functions described on the getutxent(3C) manual page to  inter-
       act with the utmpx and wtmpx databases to ensure that they are maintained consistently.

FILES

       /var/adm/utmpx	 user access and adminstration information

       /var/adm/wtmpx	 history of user access and adminstrative information

SEE ALSO

       getutxent(3C), wait(3C), wait.h(3HEAD)

SunOS 5.11							    6 Mar 2008								  utmpx(4)
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