xref: /openbsd/lib/libc/sys/acct.2 (revision 404b540a)
1.\"	$OpenBSD: acct.2,v 1.15 2007/05/31 19:19:32 jmc Exp $
2.\"	$NetBSD: acct.2,v 1.6 1995/02/27 12:31:47 cgd Exp $
3.\"
4.\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1991, 1993
5.\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
6.\"
7.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
8.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
9.\" are met:
10.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
11.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
12.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
13.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
14.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
15.\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
16.\"    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
17.\"    without specific prior written permission.
18.\"
19.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
20.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
21.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
22.\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
23.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
24.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
25.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
26.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
27.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
28.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
29.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
30.\"
31.\"     @(#)acct.2	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
32.\"
33.Dd $Mdocdate: May 31 2007 $
34.Dt ACCT 2
35.Os
36.Sh NAME
37.Nm acct
38.Nd enable or disable process accounting
39.Sh SYNOPSIS
40.Fd #include <unistd.h>
41.Ft int
42.Fn acct "const char *file"
43.Sh DESCRIPTION
44The
45.Fn acct
46call enables or disables the collection of system accounting records.
47If
48.Fa file
49is
50.Dv NULL ,
51accounting is disabled.
52If
53.Fa file
54is an existing, NUL-terminated pathname, record collection is enabled
55and for every process initiated which terminates under normal conditions
56an accounting record is appended to
57.Fa file .
58Abnormal conditions of termination are reboots or other
59fatal system problems.
60Records for processes which never terminate cannot be produced by
61.Fn acct .
62.Fn acct
63is only available on kernels compiled with the
64.Cm ACCOUNTING
65option.
66.Pp
67For more information on the record structure used by
68.Fn acct ,
69see
70.Pa /usr/include/sys/acct.h
71and
72.Xr acct 5 .
73.Pp
74This call is permitted only to the superuser.
75.Sh NOTES
76Accounting is automatically disabled when the file system the
77accounting file resides on runs out of space; it is enabled when
78space once again becomes available.
79.Sh RETURN VALUES
80On success, zero is returned.
81Otherwise, \-1 is returned and
82.Va errno
83is set to indicate the error.
84.Sh ERRORS
85.Fn acct
86will fail if one of the following is true:
87.Bl -tag -width Er
88.It Bq Er EPERM
89The caller is not the superuser.
90.It Bq Er ENOTDIR
91A component of the path prefix is not a directory.
92.It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG
93A component of a pathname exceeded
94.Dv {NAME_MAX}
95characters, or an entire path name exceeded
96.Dv {PATH_MAX}
97characters.
98.It Bq Er ENOENT
99The named file does not exist.
100.It Bq Er EACCES
101Search permission is denied for a component of the path prefix,
102or the path name is not a regular file.
103.It Bq Er ELOOP
104Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname.
105.It Bq Er EROFS
106The named file resides on a read-only file system.
107.It Bq Er EFAULT
108.Fa file
109points outside the process's allocated address space.
110.It Bq Er EIO
111An I/O error occurred while reading from or writing to the file system.
112.El
113.Sh SEE ALSO
114.Xr acct 5 ,
115.Xr accton 8 ,
116.Xr sa 8
117.Sh HISTORY
118An
119.Fn acct
120function call appeared in
121.At v7 .
122