NNACCT(1m)																NNACCT(1m)

NAME

       nnacct - news accounting and access authorization (nn)

SYNOPSIS

       nnacct -r [ -f file ] [ -a ] [ user ]...
       nnacct [ -ppolicy ] [ -qquota ] user...
       nnacct -ZERO

DESCRIPTION

       The nnacct command provides an optional accounting and access authorization for news reading via the nn news reader.

       The  first  form (-r) is used to print accounting reports.  If a file is specified data from a saved accounting file; otherwise the data is
       read from the current accounting file.

       If -a is specified, the report will contain accounting data for all users.  Otherwise, if one or more users are	specified,  the  data  for
       these users will be printed.  If neiter is specified, only the accounting data for the current user is printed.
	 Only the super-user can generate reports for other users than the caller.

       The  second  form  (-p  and/or -q) assigns the specified access policy and/or quota to the specified users.  If a given user is not already
       known in the accounting file, a new entry with the specified policy and quota is created (default values are used if both  are  not  speci-
       fied).

       The third form (-ZERO) will clear the usage counts for all users.  Individual usage counts cannot be cleared.  The original accounting file
       is saved with a .old suffix.

       The following policies are currently implemented:

       0      No access.  The user is not allowed to read news at all.

       1      Privileged user.	The user can read news at all times and no accounting information is saved.  This is obviously the policy for sys-
	      tem administrators :-)

       2      Full time access.  The user can access news at all times.

       3      Off-hours  access.   The	user can only access news at off hours, i.e. in the morning, in the evening, on week-ends, and on holidays
	      (not complete - check the source :-)

       The quota specifies a number of hours which the user is allowed to read news.  When this quota is used up, access will be blocked.  A quota
       of zero gives unlimited access.

       New  users  will get the default policy and quota defined in account.c.	If this allows new users to read news at only specific times, this
       form can be used to permit individual users to read news at all times, or it can be used to prevent them from reading news at all.  If  the
       default policy does not allow new users to read news, this form must be used to authorize them to read news.

HOW IT WORKS

       If  authorization is enabled, the nn news reader will call nnacct on start-up to check whether the policy and quota defined for the current
       user allows him to read news at this time (or at all).

       If accounting is enabled, the nn news reader will call nnacct on exit to register the time spent on news reading.  If  account  logging	is
       also defined (see account.c), an line is also added to the accounting log file.

       When  accounting is defined, the user can use the :cost command to get the current accounting data, and if the variable report-cost is set,
       nn will print accounting information on exit.

CONTIGURATION AND NEW POLICIES

       The use of nnacct is enabled via the ACCOUNTING and AUTHORIZE symbols in nn's configuration file.  Further configuration of  cost  calcula-
       tions,  logging,  default  policy,  default  quotas,  etc.  is done directly in the source file account.c.  New access policies can also be
       defined in this file.  This allows you to change the policies or prices without having to recompile the whole package since only nnacct	is
       modified.

PRIVILEGED USERS

       Normally,  only	root  is  allowed  to change user policy or quota, list all user's accounting data etc.  This privilege can be shared with
       other users by listing their login name in the file $CLIENT/admins.  There should be exactly one login name per line,  and  no  blanks  are
       allowed.

FILES

       $db/acct      accounting data (accumulated per user)
       $db/acctlog   accounting log (grows indefinitely)
       $lib/admins   login names of privileged nnacct users.

SEE ALSO

       nn(1), nnusage(1)

BUGS

       There should be some tools to mess around with the accounting files, e.g. to make summaries, clear usage counters, etc.

AUTHOR

       Kim F. Storm, Texas Instruments A/S, Denmark
       E-mail: storm@texas.dk

4th Berkeley Distribution					    Release 6.6 							NNACCT(1m)