Daily Operation

Daily Operation

When IRIX enters multiuser mode, /usr/lib/acct/startup is executed as follows:

The acctwtmp program adds a "boot" record to /etc/wtmp. This record is signified by using the system name as the login name in the wtmp record.
Process accounting is started by turnacct, which, in turn, executes acct on /var/adm/pacct.
remove is executed to clean up the saved pacct and wtmp files left in the sum directory by runacct.

The ckpacct procedure is run through cron every hour of the day to check the size of /var/adm/pacct. If the file grows past 1000 blocks (default), the turnacct switch is executed. The advantage of having several smaller pacct files becomes apparent when you try to restart runacct after a failure processing these records.

The chargefee program can be used to bill users for file restores, and so on. It adds records to /var/adm/fee that are picked up and processed by the next execution of runacct and merged into the total accounting records. runacct is executed through cron each night. It processes the active accounting files, /var/adm/pacct, /etc/wtmp, /var/adm/acct/nite/disktacct, and /var/adm/fee. It produces command summaries and usage summaries by login name.

When the system is shut down using shutdown, the shutacct shell procedure is executed. It writes a shutdown reason record into /etc/wtmp and turns process accounting off.

After the first reboot each morning, the administrator should execute /usr/lib/acct/prdaily to print the previous day's accounting report.