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)

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acct(2) 							System Calls Manual							   acct(2)

Name
       acct - turn accounting on or off

Syntax
       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

       This  call  is  permitted  only to the superuser.  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 superuser.  It is erroneous  to  try  to  turn	on
       accounting when it is already on.  If successful, 0 is returned.

Diagnostics
       The system call will fail if one of the following is true:

       [EPERM]	      The caller is not the superuser.

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

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

       [ENOENT]       The named file does not exist.

       [EACCES]       The path name is not a regular file.

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

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

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

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

Restrictions
       No accounting is produced for programs running when a crash occurs.  In particular, nonterminating programs are never accounted for.

See Also
       acct(5), sa(8)

																	   acct(2)

Linux and UNIX Man Pages

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