acct

ACCT(2)                    Linux Programmer's Manual                   ACCT(2)



NAME
       acct - switch process accounting on or off

SYNOPSIS
       #include <unistd.h>

       int acct(const char *filename);

DESCRIPTION
       When  called  with the name of an existing file as argument, accounting
       is turned on, records for each  terminating  process  are  appended  to
       filename as it terminates.  An argument of NULL causes accounting to be
       turned off.

RETURN VALUE
       On success, zero is returned.  On error, -1 is returned, and  errno  is
       set appropriately.

ERRORS
       EACCES Write permission is denied for the specified file.

       EACCES The argument filename is not a regular file.

       EFAULT filename points outside your accessible address space.

       EIO    Error writing to the file filename.

       EISDIR filename is a directory.

       ELOOP  Too  many symbolic links were encountered in resolving filename.

       ENAMETOOLONG
              filename was too long.

       ENOENT The specified filename does not exist.

       ENOMEM Out of memory.

       ENOSYS BSD process accounting has not been enabled when  the  operating
              system  kernel was compiled.  The kernel configuration parameter
              controlling this feature is CONFIG_BSD_PROCESS_ACCT.

       ENOTDIR
              A component used as a directory in filename is  not  in  fact  a
              directory.

       EPERM  The calling process has no permission to enable process account-
              ing.

       EROFS  filename refers to a file on a read-only file system.

       EUSERS There are no more free file structures or we ran out of  memory.

CONFORMING TO
       SVr4  (but not POSIX).  SVr4 documents an EBUSY error condition, but no
       EISDIR or ENOSYS. Also AIX and HPUX document EBUSY (attempt is made  to
       enable accounting when it is already enabled), as does Solaris (attempt
       is made to enable accounting using the  same  file  that  is  currently
       being used).

NOTES
       No accounting is produced for programs running when a crash occurs.  In
       particular, nonterminating processes are never accounted for.





Linux 2.1.126                     1998-11-04                           ACCT(2)