opensolaris man page for acct

acct(2) 							   System Calls 							   acct(2)

NAME
       acct - enable or disable process accounting

SYNOPSIS
       #include <unistd.h>

       int acct(const char *path);

DESCRIPTION
       The  acct()  function  enables  or  disables the system process accounting routine. If the routine is enabled, an accounting record will be
       written in an accounting file for each process that terminates. The termination of a process can be caused by either an exit(2) call  or  a
       signal(3C)). The effective user ID of the process calling acct() must have the appropriate privileges.

       The path argument points to the pathname of the accounting file, whose file format is described on the acct.h(3HEAD) manual page.

       The accounting routine is enabled if path is non-zero and no errors occur during the function. It is disabled if path is  (char *)NULL  and
       no errors occur during the function.

RETURN VALUES
       Upon successful completion, 0 is returned. Otherwise, -1 is returned and errno is set to indicate the error.

ERRORS
       The acct() function will fail if:

       EACCES	       The file named by path is not an ordinary file.

       EBUSY	       An attempt is being made to enable accounting using the same file that is currently being used.

       EFAULT	       The path argument points to an illegal address.

       ELOOP	       Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating path.

       ENAMETOOLONG    The length of the  path	argument  exceeds  {PATH_MAX},	or  the  length  of  a	path  argument	exceeds  {NAME_MAX}  while
		       _POSIX_NO_TRUNC is in effect.

       ENOENT	       One or more components of the accounting file pathname do not exist.

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

       EPERM	       The {PRIV_SYS_ACCT} privilege is not asserted in the effective set of the calling process.

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

SEE ALSO
       exit(2), acct.h(3HEAD), signal(3C), privileges(5)

SunOS 5.11							    20 Jan 2003 							   acct(2)