acct(4) 						     Kernel Interfaces Manual							   acct(4)

NAME

       acct - per-process accounting file format

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

       Files produced as a result of calling (see acct(2)) have records in the form defined by whose contents are:

	      typedef ushort comp_t; /* "floating point":
					     13-bit fraction, 3-bit exponent */
	      struct  acct {
		  char	  ac_flag;	  /* Accounting flag */
		  char	  ac_stat;	  /* Exit status */
		  uid_t   ac_uid;	  /* Accounting user ID */
		  gid_t   ac_gid;	  /* Accounting group ID */
		  dev_t   ac_tty;	  /* control typewriter */
		  time_t  ac_btime;	  /* Beginning time */
		  comp_t  ac_utime;	  /* acctng user time in clock ticks */
		  comp_t  ac_stime;	  /* acctng system time in clock ticks */
		  comp_t  ac_etime;	  /* acctng elapsed time in clock ticks */
		  comp_t  ac_mem;	  /* memory usage in clicks */
		  comp_t  ac_io;	  /* chars trnsfrd by read/write */
		  comp_t  ac_rw;	  /* number of block reads/writes */
		  char	  ac_comm[8];	  /* command name */
	      };
	      #define AFORK   01	  /* has executed fork, but no exec */
	      #define ASU     02	  /* used super-user privileges */
	      #define ACCTF   0300	  /* record type: 00 = acct */

       In  the	flag  is  turned on by each and turned off by an (see fork(2) and exec(2)).  The field is inherited from the parent process and is
       reset by any Each time the system charges the process with a clock tick, it also adds to the current process size, computed as follows:

	      (data size) + (text size) + (number of in-core processes sharing text) +
	      sum of ((shared memory segment size) / (number of in-core processes attached to segment))

       For systems with virtual memory, the text, data, and shared memory sizes refer to the resident portion of the memory segments.	The  value
       of can be viewed as an approximation to the mean process size, as modified by text-sharing.

       The  structure,	which resides with the source files of the accounting commands, represents the total accounting format used by the various
       accounting commands:

WARNINGS

       The value for a short-lived command gives little information about the actual size of the command because can be incremented while  a  dif-
       ferent command (such as the shell) is being executed by the process.

       Kernel  internal  structures may change from release to release without warning.  Applications directly relying on these structures are not
       supported.

       Accounting files are currently written in 32-bit format.  Thus, 64-bit applications which read the files need to make  special  provisions.
       In  particular,	the  header  declares  the  field as rather than a in 64-bit compilations.  The field should be cast to in the application
       before using it (e.g., in calls to date conversion functions).  The accounting file format will be changed to a 64-bit layout at  a  future
       release.

SEE ALSO

       acct(2), acct(1M), acctcom(1M), exec(2), fork(2).

STANDARDS CONFORMANCE

																	   acct(4)