acct(2)

acct -- enable or disable process accounting

Synopsis

   #include <unistd.h>
   
   int acct(const char path);

Description

acct enables or disables the system process accounting routine. If the routine is enabled, an accounting record will be written in an accounting file for each process that terminates. The termination of a process can be caused by one of two things: an exit call or a signal [see exit(2) and signal(2)]. The calling process must have the appropriate privilege (P_SYSOPS) to enable or disable accounting.

path points to a pathname naming the accounting file. The accounting file format is given in acct(4).

The accounting routine is enabled if path is non-zero and no errors occur during the system call. It is disabled if path is (char *)NULL and no errors occur during the system call.

Return values

On success, acct returns 0. On failure, acct returns -1 and sets errno to identify the error.

Errors

In the following conditions, acct fails and sets errno to:

EACCES: The file named by path is not an ordinary file.
EACCES: Search permission is denied on a component of the path prefix.
EACCES: Write permission on the name file is denied.
EBUSY: An attempt is being made to enable accounting using the same file that is currently being used.
EFAULT: path points to an illegal address.
ELOOP: Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating path.
ENAMETOOLONG: The length of the path argument exceeds {PATH_MAX}, or the length of a path component exceeds {NAME_MAX} while _POSIX_NO_TRUNC is in effect.
ENOTDIR: A component of the path prefix is not a directory.
ENOENT: One or more components of the accounting file pathname do not exist.
EPERM: The calling process does not have the appropriate privilege (P_SYSOPS) to enable or disable accounting.
EROFS: The named file resides on a read-only file system.

References

acct(4), exit(2), signal(2)

Notices

Considerations for threads programming

Statistics are gathered at the process level and represent the combined usage of all contained threads. The accounting record is written on the termination of the process.