acct(2)
acct --
enable or disable process accounting
Synopsis
#include <unistd.h>
int acct(const char path);
Description
acct 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 one of two things: an
exit
call or a signal
[see
exit(2)
and
signal(2)].
The calling process must have the appropriate privilege (P_SYSOPS)
to enable or disable accounting.
path points to a pathname naming the accounting file.
The accounting file format is given in
acct(4).
The accounting routine is enabled if path
is non-zero and no errors occur during the system call.
It is disabled if path
is (char *)NULL and no errors occur during the system call.
Return values
On success, acct returns 0.
On failure, acct returns -1 and sets errno to identify the error.
Errors
In the following conditions, acct fails and sets errno to:
EACCES-
The file named by
path is not an ordinary file.
EACCES-
Search permission is denied on a component of the path prefix.
EACCES-
Write permission on the name file is denied.
EBUSY-
An attempt is being made to enable accounting using the same file
that is currently being used.
EFAULT-
path 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 component exceeds {NAME_MAX} while
_POSIX_NO_TRUNC is in effect.
ENOTDIR-
A component of the path prefix is not a directory.
ENOENT-
One or more components of the accounting file pathname do not exist.
EPERM-
The calling process does not have the appropriate privilege
(P_SYSOPS)
to enable or disable accounting.
EROFS-
The named file resides on a read-only file system.
References
acct(4),
exit(2),
signal(2)
Notices
Considerations for threads programming
Statistics are gathered at the process level
and represent the combined usage of all contained threads.
The accounting record is written on the termination of the process.
© 2004 The SCO Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
UnixWare 7 Release 7.1.4 - 25 April 2004