acct(S)                        6 January 1993                        acct(S)


 Name

    acct - enable or disable process accounting

 Syntax


    cc  . . .  -lc


    int acct (path)
    char *path;


 Description

    acct is used to enable or disable the system process accounting routine.
    If the routine is enabled, an accounting record is written on an account-
    ing file for each process that terminates.  Termination can be caused by
    one of two things:  an exit call or a signal.  (See exit(S) and
    signal(S).)  The effective user ID of the calling process must be
    superuser to use this call.

    path points to a pathname naming the accounting file.  The accounting
    file format is given in acct(FP).

    The accounting routine is enabled if path is non-zero and no errors occur
    during the system call.  It is disabled if path is zero and no errors
    occur during the system call.

    acct fails if one or more of the following is true:

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

    [EBUSY]        An attempt is being made to enable accounting when it is
                   already enabled.

    [EFAULT]       path points to an illegal address.

    [ENOENT]       One or more components of the accounting file path name do
                   not exist.

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

    [EPERM]        The effective user of the calling process is not super-
                   user.

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


 See also

    acct(FP), exit(S), signal(S)

 Diagnostics

    Upon successful completion, a value of 0 is returned. Otherwise, a value
    of -1 is returned and errno is set to indicate the error.

 Standards conformance

    acct is conformant with:
    AT&T SVID Issue 2.