Very Computer

by **Matt Harr** » Wed, 13 Jul 1994 23:55:26

I've got a user permananty loged in. He has no processes running (not
even a shell) and he is _not_ dialed into the terminal server that who
says he is. The user is not online, but for some reason he has not been
loged out. What can I do about this?

The system is a bsd4.3 system (BSDI v1.1)

Regards,
--

InterLog Internet Services voice (416) 537-7453 fax (416) 532-5015
Online Publishing, Marketing, and Support on the Internet
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by **Jinwoo Sh** » Thu, 14 Jul 1994 07:26:11

>I've got a user permananty loged in. He has no processes running (not
>even a shell) and he is _not_ dialed into the terminal server that who
>says he is. The user is not online, but for some reason he has not been
>loged out. What can I do about this?
>The system is a bsd4.3 system (BSDI v1.1)

It maybe that he is not really logged in but his named is listed on utmp file.
This sometimes happen without SparcStations running SunOS 4.1.3 when some user
from DecStation (Ultrix) telneting aborts. You can use viutmp or just truncate
the file.
--

System Administrator
Berkeley Sensor and Actuator Center

by **Greg Kete** » Fri, 15 Jul 1994 03:34:12

> I've got a user permananty loged in. He has no processes running (not
> even a shell) and he is _not_ dialed into the terminal server that who
> says he is. The user is not online, but for some reason he has not been
> loged out. What can I do about this?

> The system is a bsd4.3 system (BSDI v1.1)

> Regards,
> --

> InterLog Internet Services voice (416) 537-7453 fax (416) 532-5015
> Online Publishing, Marketing, and Support on the Internet
> Lowest Cost Dial-Up Internet Connectivity in Toronto -- $0.30/hour

As ugly as it is the only solution I have found/been told over the years is
to restart the machine.

--
Greg Ketell Affymax Research Institute
Manager of Network Engineering 3410 Central Expressway

408.522.5711 Fax: 408.481-0393

Views expressed are my own and not necessarily those of my company.

by **Faried Naw** » Tue, 19 Jul 1994 14:15:55

I've got a user permananty loged in. He has no processes running (not
even a shell) and he is _not_ dialed into the terminal server that who
says he is. The user is not online, but for some reason he has not been
loged out. What can I do about this?

have someone log on to his pty. that'll clear the utmp entry.

by **Chi xiaoch** » Thu, 21 Jul 1994 16:19:36

Quote:>have someone log on to his pty. that'll clear the utmp entry.

How to log on to a specific pty?

by **Mark A. Dav** » Thu, 21 Jul 1994 21:15:23

>>have someone log on to his pty. that'll clear the utmp entry.

That will not always work. It doesn't here. Sometimes, if an Xterminal
is turned off without logging off (or crashes), it will leave ghost
entries in utmp for over a week (then suddenly it gets cleared with no
explanation).

Quote:>How to log on to a specific pty?

To my knowledge, you cannot specify which pty for the xterms to use, it
just gets an "unused" one automatically.

I have asked about this before: "How does one rebuild the utmp database
when it becomes corrupt?" there were no replies.

I can't even find something manual, like a utmp editor or modification
command so I can manually remove incorrect entries. One sure way to
rebuild it is to reboot the machine. Of course, this is not an option
here.
--
/--------------------------------------------------------------------------\
| Mark A. Davis | Lake Taylor Hospital | Norfolk, VA (804)-461-5001x431 |

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------/

by **Anthony J. Stuck** » Thu, 21 Jul 1994 23:34:16

>>>have someone log on to his pty. that'll clear the utmp entry.
>That will not always work. It doesn't here. Sometimes, if an Xterminal
>is turned off without logging off (or crashes), it will leave ghost
>entries in utmp for over a week (then suddenly it gets cleared with no
>explanation).
>>How to log on to a specific pty?
>To my knowledge, you cannot specify which pty for the xterms to use, it
>just gets an "unused" one automatically.

Well -- you can just keep logging in until all of them are used or you
hit the offending one by chance. Most machines that I've used do
sequential PTY allocation -- so you shouldn't even have to go too far.

Quote:>I have asked about this before: "How does one rebuild the utmp database
>when it becomes corrupt?" there were no replies.
>I can't even find something manual, like a utmp editor or modification
>command so I can manually remove incorrect entries. One sure way to
>rebuild it is to reboot the machine. Of course, this is not an option
>here.

Last time I checked, there was a small code fragment in the
comp.unix.AIX FAQ list, which would remove the entries for users who are
not logged in. If you are having more major problems with corruption than
that, I'm not sure what to suggest. /usr/include is your friend,
remember.
--

"And if you frisbee-throw a universe where does it go?" -- Steve Blunt.

KiboNumber == 1

by **speed-race** » Fri, 22 Jul 1994 04:22:40

: I have asked about this before: "How does one rebuild the utmp database
: when it becomes corrupt?" there were no replies.
: I can't even find something manual, like a utmp editor or modification
: command so I can manually remove incorrect entries. One sure way to
: rebuild it is to reboot the machine. Of course, this is not an option
: here.

Well, it's probably not exactly what you're looking for, nor as powerful,
but FWIW:

Quote:>Host tesla.ee.cornell.edu

> Location: /pub
> FILE -rw-r--r-- 19853 Feb 5 1992 viutmp.tar.Z

It's worth a try, I suppose. Sorry, but I haven't seen any emacs interfaces
as yet. :-)

--
) Andy "speed-racer" Wagliardo "Now is the Windows of our disk contents (

) *ia Polytechnic Institute -- Richard v3.0 (

by **Jinwoo Sh** » Fri, 22 Jul 1994 04:58:02

Quote:>I can't even find something manual, like a utmp editor or modification
>command so I can manually remove incorrect entries. One sure way to
>rebuild it is to reboot the machine. Of course, this is not an option
>here.

I remember seeing something like viutmp that lets you edit utmp entry. The
simplest thing to do is just have everyone log off and truncate the utmp.
--

System Administrator
Berkeley Sensor and Actuator Center

by **Mark A. Dav** » Fri, 22 Jul 1994 04:29:50

>>>How to log on to a specific pty?
>>To my knowledge, you cannot specify which pty for the xterms to use, it
>>just gets an "unused" one automatically.
> Well -- you can just keep logging in until all of them are used or you
>hit the offending one by chance. Most machines that I've used do
>sequential PTY allocation -- so you shouldn't even have to go too far.

That does not work. It is sequential, but simply skips over the "used" one....
to the next higher; which still leaves the phantom user logged in :(

Quote:> Last time I checked, there was a small code fragment in the
>comp.unix.AIX FAQ list, which would remove the entries for users who are
>not logged in. If you are having more major problems with corruption than
>that, I'm not sure what to suggest. /usr/include is your friend,
>remember.

:)

--
/--------------------------------------------------------------------------\
| Mark A. Davis | Lake Taylor Hospital | Norfolk, VA (804)-461-5001x431 |

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------/

by **N.W. van der Lu** » Sun, 24 Jul 1994 00:26:10

|>

|> >>>How to log on to a specific pty?
|> >>To my knowledge, you cannot specify which pty for the xterms to use, it
|> >>just gets an "unused" one automatically.
|>
|> > Well -- you can just keep logging in until all of them are used or you
|> >hit the offending one by chance. Most machines that I've used do
|> >sequential PTY allocation -- so you shouldn't even have to go too far.
|>
|> That does not work. It is sequential, but simply skips over the "used" one....
|> to the next higher; which still leaves the phantom user logged in :(
|>
|> > Last time I checked, there was a small code fragment in the
|> >comp.unix.AIX FAQ list, which would remove the entries for users who are
|> >not logged in. If you are having more major problems with corruption than
|> >that, I'm not sure what to suggest. /usr/include is your friend,
|> >remember.

And so is:
man pututline
when you are talking C. There seems to be quite a standard API on /etc/utmp.

Klaas

by **Benjamin Z. Goldste** » Mon, 25 Jul 1994 15:16:00

>>>have someone log on to his pty. that'll clear the utmp entry.
>That will not always work. It doesn't here. Sometimes, if an Xterminal
>is turned off without logging off (or crashes), it will leave ghost
>entries in utmp for over a week (then suddenly it gets cleared with no
>explanation).

Pretty crappy, but pretty common. Really, whatever is handling that
session really ought to remove the utmp entry if it detects the
terminal is dead. If it can't detect it then it should just "hang out
there" until you kill it. Then it should remove the entry.

Personally, I think utmp is one of those things that needs to be
rethunk entirely (like that whole subsystem).

Quote:>>How to log on to a specific pty?
>To my knowledge, you cannot specify which pty for the xterms to use, it
>just gets an "unused" one automatically.

Depending on the system, xterm may try to find an open pty by trying
each one. Thus, if a low numbered pty is not getting used, something
somewhere is holding it open.

Quote:>I have asked about this before: "How does one rebuild the utmp database
>when it becomes corrupt?" there were no replies.

There should be some programs (at least on SysV-like machines) in
/usr/lib/acct called something like fwtmp. This converts utmp files
into editable ASCII and back to binary. I have always wonder why in
the spirit of the rest of the system why this file is ASCII.

>I can't even find something manual, like a utmp editor or modification
>command so I can manually remove incorrect entries. One sure way to
>rebuild it is to reboot the machine. Of course, this is not an option
>here.
>--
> /--------------------------------------------------------------------------\
> | Mark A. Davis | Lake Taylor Hospital | Norfolk, VA (804)-461-5001x431 |

> \--------------------------------------------------------------------------/

--
Benjamin Z. Golds*

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