NAME

acct − turn accounting on or off

SYNOPSIS

acct(path)
char ∗path;

DESCRIPTION

The system is prepared to write a record in an accounting file named by path for each process as it terminates.  This call, with a null-terminated string naming an existing file as argument, turns on accounting; records for each terminating process are appended to file. An argument of 0 turns accounting off.

The accounting file format is given in acct(5).

NOTES

Accounting is automatically turned off when the file system the accounting file resides on runs out of space; it is not, however turned back on when space becomes available. 

DIAGNOSTICS

On error −1 is returned.  The file must exist and the call may be exercised only by the super-user.  It is erroneous to try to turn on accounting when it is already on. 

ERRORS

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

[ENOENT] The argument pathname was too long. 

[ENOENT] The named file does not exist. 

[EPERM] The path argument contains a byte with the high-order bit set. 

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

[EROFS] The path is to a read-only file system. 

[ETXTBSY] The path names an executable file that is being executed. 

[EFAULT] Path points outside the process’s valid address space. 

SEE ALSO

acct(5), sa(8)

BUGS

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

Sun System Release 0.3  —  25 April 1983