NAME    [Toc]    [Back]

       acct - Enables and disables process accounting

SYNOPSIS    [Toc]    [Back]

       int acct(
               char *path );

PARAMETERS    [Toc]    [Back]

       Specifies a pointer to the pathname of the file, or specifies
 a null pointer.

DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]

       The acct() function  enables  and  disables  UNIX  process
       accounting.   When enabled, process accounting produces an
       accounting record on behalf of each  terminating  process.
       The  path  parameter specifies the pathname of the file to
       which an accounting  record  is  written.  When  the  path
       parameter is 0 (zero) or a null value, the acct() function
       disables the accounting routine.  If  the  path  parameter
       refers  to  a  symbolic  link,  the acct() function writes
       records to the file pointed to by the  symbolic  link.  If
       Network  File  System  is  installed  on  your system, the
       accounting file can reside  on  another  node.  To  ensure
       accurate  accounting, each node must have its own accounting
 file, which can be located on any node in the network.
       The  calling  process  must  have  superuser  privilege to
       enable or disable process accounting.

RETURN VALUES    [Toc]    [Back]

       Upon successful completion, the acct() function returns  a
       value  of  0 (zero).  Otherwise, a value of -1 is returned
       and errno is set to indicate the error.

ERRORS    [Toc]    [Back]

       If the acct() function fails, errno may be set to  one  of
       the  following  values:  The calling process does not have
       appropriate system privilege.  The file named by the  path
       parameter  does  not  exist.   The  file named by the path
       parameter is not an ordinary file.   Write  permission  is
       denied  for  the  named  accounting  file.  The named file
       resides on a read-only file system.

SEE ALSO    [Toc]    [Back]

       Functions: exit(2), sigaction(2),  sigvec(2),  expacct(3),
       raise(3)



                                                          acct(2)