acct(2) [opendarwin 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

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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

acct(2) [opendarwin man page]

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