acct(2) [hpux man page]

acct(2) 							System Calls Manual							   acct(2)

NAME

       acct() - enable or disable process accounting

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

       The system call enables or disables the system's process accounting routine.  If the routine is enabled, an accounting record is written on
       an accounting file for each process that terminates.  Termination can be caused by one of two things: an call or a signal (see exit(2)  and
       signal(5)).  The calling process must have the privilege to use this call.

       path points to a path name naming the accounting file.  The accounting file format is described in acct(4).

       The  accounting	routine  is  enabled if path is nonzero and no errors occur during the system call.  It is disabled if path is zero and no
       errors occur during the system call.

       When the amount of free space on the file system containing the accounting file falls below a configurable threshold, the system  prints  a
       message on the console and disables process accounting.	Another message is printed and the process accounting is re-enabled when the space
       reaches a second configurable threshold.

       If the size of the process accounting file reaches a configurable limit, records  for  processes  terminating  after  that  point  will	be
       silently  lost.	However, in that case the command would still sense that process accounting is still enabled.  This loss of records can be
       prevented with the command.  and are described in acctsh(1M)).

   Security Restrictions
       Some or all of the actions associated with this system call require the privilege.  Processes owned by the superuser have  this	privilege.
       Processes  owned  by  other users may have this privilege, depending on system configuration.  See privileges(5) for more information about
       privileged access on systems that support fine-grained privileges.

RETURN VALUE

       returns the following values:

	      Successful completion.
	      Failure.
		     is set to indicate the error.

ERRORS

       If fails, is set to one of the following values.

	      The file named by
			     path is not an ordinary file.

	      An attempt is being made to enable accounting when it is already enabled.

	      path	     points to an illegal address.  The reliable detection of this error is implementation dependent.

	      Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the path name.

	      The accounting file path name exceeds
			     bytes, or the length of a component of the path name exceeds bytes while is in effect.

	      One or more components of the accounting file path name do not exist.

	      A component of the path prefix is not a directory.

	      The calling process does not possess the
			     privilege.

	      The named file resides on a read-only file system.

	      path	     points to a text file which is currently open.

SEE ALSO

       acct(1M), acctsh(1M), exit(2), acct(4), privileges(5), signal(5).

STANDARDS CONFORMANCE

																	   acct(2)

Check Out this Related Man Page

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

NAME

     acct -- enable or disable process accounting

SYNOPSIS

     #include <unistd.h>

     int
     acct(const char *file);

DESCRIPTION

     The acct() call enables or disables the collection of system accounting records.  If the argument file is a nil pointer, accounting is dis-
     abled.  If file is an existing pathname (null-terminated), 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 prob-
     lems.  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.

RETURN VALUES

     On error -1 is returned.  The file must exist and the call may be exercised only by the super-user.

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.

     [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.

     [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)

HISTORY

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

4th Berkeley Distribution					   June 4, 1993 					 4th Berkeley Distribution

Linux and UNIX Man Pages

acct(2) [hpux man page]

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