ACCT(T)             Linux Programmer's Manual             ACCT(T)



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 pro-
       cess  are appended to filename as it terminates.  An argu-
       ment 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 resolv-
              ing 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 ker-
              nel configuration parameter controlling  this  fea-
              ture 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 accounting.

       EROFS  filename  refers to a file on a read-only file sys-
              tem.

       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 con-
       dition, but no EISDIR or ENOSYS. Also AIX and  HPUX  docu-
       ment  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(T)