Autologout of unused terminals
Keith Gabryelski
ag at elgar.UUCP
Thu Dec 1 14:40:01 AEST 1988
In article <74 at attibr.UUCP> vch at attibr.UUCP (Vincent C. Hatem) writes:
>You could also use 'who -u' (on Sys V), which tells the idle time...
Idle time messages on some versions of system V who are broken. They
use st_mtime instead of st_atime. From `man stat':
sed -n "s/(S)/(2)/gp" # if appropriate.
st_atime Time when file data was last accessed. Changed
by the following system calls: creat(S),
mknod(S), pipe(S), utime(S), and read(S).
^^^^^^^
st_mtime Time when data was last modified. Changed by the
following system calls: creat(S), mknod(S),
pipe(S), utime(S), and write(S).
^^^^^^^^
The idle daemon code is trivial (written during halftime on Monday).
If anyone would like a copy, send me mail.
In article <3603 at jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV> lwall at jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov
(Larry Wall) brings up:
>[...] but idle-killers are so easy to spoof, unless you disable
>people from executing utime() or ioctl().
The daemon code, IMHO, should not be intended for use against
malicious(*) or unwilling idlers. The code is used to logout users
who forget to logout.
Also, an idle daemon may not be appropriate for some (even most)
sites, but it is a valid option for a few. You don't even have to be
fascist about the code, set it for three hours if you like ... with
warning messages.
(*) ``malicious idlers'' here is defined as a user that hogs a
terminal (by being logged in) for an usually long period of time
without using the terminal.
nohup(1) is a viable alternative in a lot of the idle terminal cases.
Pax, Keith
--
ag at elgar.CTS.COM Keith Gabryelski ...!{ucsd, jack}!elgar!ag
More information about the Comp.unix.wizards
mailing list