ACCT(2)             UNIX Programmer's Manual		  ACCT(2)



NAME
     acct - turn accounting on or off

SYNOPSIS
     acct(file)
     char *file;

DESCRIPTION
     The system is prepared to write a record in an accounting
     _f_i_l_e 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 _f_i_l_e.  An argument of 0 causes accounting to
     be turned off.

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

     This call is permitted only to the super-user.

NOTES
     Accounting is automatically disabled when the file system
     the accounting file resides on runs out of space; it is
     enabled when space once again becomes available.

RETURN VALUE
     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
     _A_c_c_t will fail if one of the following is true:

     [EPERM]	    The caller is not the super-user.

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

     [EINVAL]	    The pathname contains a character with the
		    high-order bit set.

     [ENAMETOOLONG] A component of a pathname exceeded 255 char-
		    acters, or an entire path name exceeded 1023
		    characters.

     [ENOENT]	    The named file does not exist.

     [EACCES]	    Search permission is denied for a component
		    of the path prefix, or the path name is not a
		    regular file.

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



Printed 11/26/99	  May 22, 1986				1






ACCT(2)             UNIX Programmer's Manual		  ACCT(2)



     [EROFS]	    The named file resides on a read-only file
		    system.

     [EFAULT]	    _F_i_l_e points outside the process's allocated
		    address space.

     [EIO]	    An I/O error occurred while reading from or
		    writing to the file system.

SEE ALSO
     acct(5), sa(8)

BUGS
     No accounting is produced for programs running when a crash
     occurs.  In particular non-terminating programs are never
     accounted for.







































Printed 11/26/99	  May 22, 1986				2