ac - print statistics about users' connect time
SYNOPSIS
ac [ -d | --daily-totals ] [ -y | --print-year ]
[ -p | --individual-totals ] [ people ]
[ -f | --file filename ] [ -a | --all-days ]
[ --complain ] [ --reboots ] [ --supplants ]
[ --timewarps ] [ --compatibility ]
[ --tw-leniency num ] [ --tw-suspicious num ]
[ -z | --print-zeros ] [ --debug ]
[ -V | --version ] [ -h | --help ]
DESCRIPTION
ac prints out a report of connect time (in hours) based on
the logins/logouts in the current wtmp file. A total is
also printed out.
The accounting file wtmp is maintained by init(8) and lo
gin(1). Neither ac nor login creates the wtmp if it
doesn't exist, no accounting is done. To begin account
ing, create the file with a length of zero.
NOTE: The wtmp file can get really big, really fast. You
might want to trim it every once and a while.
GNU ac works nearly the same u*x ac, though it's a little
smarter in several ways. You should therefore expect dif
ferences in the output of GNU ac and the output of ac's on
other systems. Use the command info accounting to get ad
ditional information.
OPTIONS
-d, --daily-totals
Print totals for each day rather than just one big
total at the end. The output looks like this:
Jul 3 total 1.17
Jul 4 total 2.10
Jul 5 total 8.23
Jul 6 total 2.10
Jul 7 total 0.30
-p, --individual-totals
Print time totals for each user in addition to the
usual everything-lumped-into-one value. It looks
like:
bob 8.06
goff 0.60
maley 7.37
root 0.12
total 16.15
people Print out the sum total of the connect time used by
all of the users included in people. Note that
names; wildcards are not allowed.
-f, --file filename
Read from the file filename instead of the system's
wtmp file.
--complain
When the wtmp file has a problem (a time-warp,
missing record, or whatever), print out an appro
priate error.
--reboots
Reboot records are NOT written at the time of a re
boot, but when the system restarts; therefore, it
is impossible to know exactly when the reboot oc
curred. Users may have been logged into the system
at the time of the reboot, and many ac's automati
cally count the time between the login and the re
boot record against the user (even though all of
that time shouldn't be, perhaps, if the system is
down for a long time, for instance). If you want
to count this time, include the flag. *For vanilla
ac compatibility, include this flag.*
--supplants
Sometimes, a logout record is not written for a
specific terminal, so the time that the last user
accrued cannot be calculated. If you want to in
clude the time from the user's login to the next
login on the terminal (though probably incorrect),
include this you want to include the time from the
user's login to the next login on the terminal
(though probably incorrect), include this flag.
*For vanilla ac compatibility, include this flag.*
--timewarps
Sometimes, entries in a wtmp file will suddenly
jump back into the past without a clock change
record occurring. It is impossible to know how
long a user was logged in when this occurs. If you
want to count the time between the login and the
time warp against the user, include this flag.
*For vanilla ac compatibility, include this flag.*
--compatibility
This is shorthand for typing out the three above
options.
-a, --all-days
If we're printing daily totals, print a record for
every day instead of skipping intervening days
where there is no login activity. Without this
flag, time accrued during those intervening days
activity.
--tw-leniency num
Set the time warp leniency to num seconds. Records
in wtmp files might be slightly out of order (most
notably when two logins occur within a one-second
period - the second one gets written first). By
default, this value is set to 60. If the program
notices this problem, time is not assigned to users
unless the --timewarps flag is used.
--tw-suspicious num
Set the time warp suspicious value to num seconds.
If two records in the wtmp file are farther than
this number of seconds apart, there is a problem
with the wtmp file (or your machine hasn't been
used in a year). If the program notices this prob
lem, time is not assigned to users unless the
--timewarps flag is used.
-y, --print-year
Print year when displaying dates.
-z, --print-zeros
If a total for any category (save the grand total)
is zero, print it. The default is to suppress
printing.
--debug
Print verbose internal information.
-V, --version
Print the version number of ac to standard output
and quit.
-h, --help
Prints the usage string and default locations of
system files to standard output and exits.
FILES
wtmp
The system wide login record file. See wtmp(5) for
further details.
AUTHOR
The GNU accounting utilities were written by Noel Cragg
<noel@gnu.ai.mit.edu>. The man page was adapted from the
accounting texinfo page by Susan Kleinmann
<sgk@sgk.tiac.net>.
login(1), wtmp(5), init(8), sa(8)
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