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

NAME
     acct - enable or disable process accounting



SYNOPSIS
     #include <unistd.h>

     int
     acct(const char *file);

DESCRIPTION
     The acct() call enables or disables the collection of system accounting
     records.  If file is NULL, accounting is disabled.  If file is an exist-
     ing, null-terminated pathname, record collection is enabled and for every
     process initiated which terminates under normal conditions an accounting
     record is appended to file. Abnormal conditions of termination are re-
     boots or other fatal system problems.  Records for processes which never
     terminate can not be produced by acct().

     For more information on the record structure used by acct(), see
     /usr/include/sys/acct.h and acct(5).

     This call is permitted only to the super-user.

NOTES
     Accounting is automatically disabled when the file system the accounting
     file resides on runs out of space; it is enabled when space once again
     becomes available.

RETURN VALUES
     On error -1 is returned.  The file must exist and the call may be exer-
     cised only by the super-user.

ERRORS
     acct() will fail if one of the following is true:

     [EPERM]       The caller is not the super-user.

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

     [ENAMETOOLONG]
                   A component of a pathname exceeded {NAME_MAX} characters,
                   or an entire path name exceeded {PATH_MAX} characters.

     [ENOENT]      The named file does not exist.

     [EACCES]      Search permission is denied for a component of the path
                   prefix, or the path name is not a regular file.

     [ELOOP]       Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the
                   pathname.

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

     [EFAULT]      file points outside the process's allocated address space.

     [EIO]         An I/O error occurred while reading from or writing to the
                   file system.

SEE ALSO
     acct(5),  accton(8),  sa(8)

HISTORY
     An acct() function call appeared in Version 7 AT&T UNIX.

OpenBSD 2.6                      June 4, 1993                                1