runacct(8) System Manager's Manual runacct(8)
NAME
runacct - Runs daily accounting
SYNOPSIS
/usr/sbin/acct/runacct [mmdd] [State ...]
DESCRIPTION
The runacct command is the daily accounting shell procedure. This shell procedure is normally invoked from the cron daemon to process con-
nection, fee, disk usage, queuing (printer), and process accounting database files for the current day. The runacct shell procedure pro-
duces a /var/adm/acct/nite/dayacct binary daily accounting file and also produces summary files, which the prdaily shell procedure uses to
generate ASCII daily file /var/adm/acct/sum/rprtmmdd or to generate files used for billing for the use of various system resources. The
/var/adm/acct/nite/dayacct binary daily accounting file is used by the acctmerg command.
The acctmerg command adds records from the dayacct file to the /var/adm/acct/sumtacct file. The /var/adm/acct/sumtacct file is a cumulative
summary of system resources used during the accounting period. The sumtacct file is used by the monacct command to produce the monthly
accounting summary file, /var/adm/acct/fiscal.
The runacct command has two parameters that you may enter from the keyboard whenever you must restart the runacct shell procedure. The
date parameter, mmdd, is used to specify the day and month for which you want to rerun the accounting shell procedure. The State parameter
is used to restart the runacct shell procedure from any of its 13 states. Recovery from a run failure and the runacct shell procedure
restart is described under the Restarting Runacct heading on the next page.
The runacct command protects active accounting and summary files whenever a run-time error occurs. During execution, the state-to-state
progress of the runacct shell process is recorded by writing descriptive messages to the /var/adm/acct/nite/active file. Whenever the
runacct shell process detects a run-time error, a mail message is sent to the superuser (root) and to the user named adm when environment
variable MAILCOM is set to mail root adm. After writing the mail message the runacct shell procedure aborts.
The runacct shell procedure also creates the temporary file named lock in subdirectory /var/adm/acct/nite. This file is used to prevent
simultaneous calls to the runacct shell procedure. The runacct shell procedure also uses the lastdate file, in the same subdirectory, to
prevent more than one invocation of the runacct command per day.
The runacct States
The runacct shell procedure is processed in 13 separate restartable states. When the runacct process completes each state, the name of the
next state to undergo execution is written to the /var/adm/acct/nite/statefile file. The runacct procedure processes the various states
named in the leftmost column below, in the order given. Moves the active accounting files to working files and restarts the active files.
Verifies the integrity of the /var/adm/wtmp file and corrects date changes when necessary. Calls the acctcon1 command to write connect
session records. Converts connect session records from the /var/adm/wtmp file to total accounting records in total format defined by tacct
structure members in the private tacct.h header file. Converts process accounting records from the /var/adm/pacct* file(s) into total
accounting records (see CONNECT2 above). Merges the connect and process total accounting records. Converts the output obtained with the
chargefee command into total accounting records (see CONNECT2 above) and merges them with other total accounting records. Merges disk
accounting records with connect, process, and fee total accounting records. Sorts queue (printer) accounting records, converts them into
total accounting records (see CONNECT2 above), and merges them with other total accounting records. Merges the daily total accounting
records in the /var/adm/acct/nite/dayacct file with summary total accounting records in the /var/adm/acct/sum/tacct file. Produces command
summaries in the file /var/adm/acct/sum/cms. When the shell procedure /var/adm/siteacct exists, and the runacct shell procedure enters
this state, the /var/adm/siteacct is called to perform site-dependent account record processing. Deletes all temporary files and exits.
Restarting runacct
To restart the runacct shell process after it fails, do the following: Check the /var/adm/acct/nite/active file for diagnostic messages.
Repair records in any damaged database files, such as /var/adm/pacct or /var/adm/wtmp. Remove the /var/adm/acct/nite/lock and
/var/adm/acct/nite/lastdate files. Before restarting the runacct shell procedure, you must specify the mmdd parameter of the runacct com-
mand. This parameter specifies the month and day for which the runacct command is to rerun the accounting shell process. The runacct shell
procedure determines the entry point for processing by reading the /var/adm/acct/nite/statefile file. To override this default action,
specify a state listed above on the runacct command line.
It is not a good idea to restart the runacct command in the SETUP state. Instead, perform set-up actions manually and restart
accounting in the WTMPFIX state by entering the following command: runacct mmdd WTMPFIX
Should the runacct process fail during its PROCESS state, remove the last /var/adm/acct/nite/ptacct*.mmdd file before restarting the
runacct shell process because the file does not complete until the next state is entered.
EXAMPLES
To start daily accounting procedures for the use of various system resources, add the following command line to a crontabs file so that the
runacct shell procedure is automatically called by the cron daemon. 0 4 * * 1-6 /usr/sbin/acct/runacct 2 > /var/adm/acct/nite/accterr This
example shows the instructions that the cron daemon reads and then executes. The runacct shell procedure runs at 4:00 a.m. (0 4) every
Monday through Saturday (1-6) and redirects errors from the standard error output (2 >) to the /var/adm/acct/nite/accterr file. This com-
mand typifies accounting instructions normally passed to the cron daemon from the runacct shell procedure. (See the System Administration.)
To start daily accounting procedures for system resources from the command line (start the runacct command), enter: nohup
/usr/sbin/acct/runacct 2> /var/adm/acct/nite/accterr& Although it is preferable to have the cron daemon start the runacct procedure auto-
matically (see the first example), you may enter the command from the keyboard. The runacct command will run in the background, ignoring
all INTERRUPT and QUIT signals (nohup), and write all standard error output (2>) to the /var/adm/acct/nite/accterr file. To restart the
system accounting procedures for a specific date, enter a command similar to the following: nohup /usr/sbin/acct/runacct 0601 2>>
/var/adm/acct/nite/accterr& In this example, the runacct command is executed on the first day of June (0601). The runacct process reads the
/var/adm/acct/nite/statefile file to find the state from which to start. The runacct process runs in the background and ignores all INTER-
RUPT and QUIT signals (nohup). The standard error output (2) is appended (>>) to the end of the file named /var/adm/acct/nite/accterr.
FILES
Specifies the command path The active login/logout database file. The active process accounting database file. The active disk-usage
accounting database file. The active queue (printer) accounting file. The file containing records of fees charged to users. The command
and total accounting summary files. The concatenated version of the pacct files.
The runacct error message file. Prevents more than one invocation of the runacct shell procedure. Contains the last date the runacct
shell procedure was run. Contains the next state to process. A shell procedure containing site-dependent accounting commands. Accounting
header file that defines formats for writing accounting files.
RELATED INFORMATION
Commands: acct(8), acctcms(8), acctcom(8), acctcon(8), acctmerg(8), acctprc(8), fwtmp(8), wtmpconvert(8).
Daemons: cron
Functions: acct(2)
System Administration delim off
runacct(8)