1ACCT(2)                       System Calls Manual                      ACCT(2)
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NAME

6       acct - turn accounting on or off
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SYNOPSIS

9       acct(file)
10       char *file;
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DESCRIPTION

13       The system is prepared to write a record in an accounting file for each
14       process as it terminates.  This call,  with  a  null-terminated  string
15       naming  an  existing file as argument, turns on accounting; records for
16       each terminating process are appended to file.  An argument of 0 causes
17       accounting to be turned off.
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19       The accounting file format is given in acct(5).
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21       This call is permitted only to the super-user.
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NOTES

24       Accounting  is automatically disabled when the file system the account‐
25       ing file resides on runs out of space; it is enabled  when  space  once
26       again becomes available.
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RETURN VALUE

29       On error -1 is returned.  The file must exist and the call may be exer‐
30       cised only by the super-user.  It  is  erroneous  to  try  to  turn  on
31       accounting when it is already on.
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ERRORS

34       Acct will fail if one of the following is true:
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36       [EPERM]        The caller is not the super-user.
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38       [ENOTDIR]      A component of the path prefix is not a directory.
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40       [EINVAL]       The  pathname  contains  a character with the high-order
41                      bit set.
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43       [ENAMETOOLONG] A component of a pathname exceeded 255 characters, or an
44                      entire path name exceeded 1023 characters.
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46       [ENOENT]       The named file does not exist.
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48       [EACCES]       Search  permission is denied for a component of the path
49                      prefix, or the path name is not a regular file.
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51       [ELOOP]        Too many symbolic links were encountered in  translating
52                      the pathname.
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54       [EROFS]        The named file resides on a read-only file system.
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56       [EFAULT]       File  points  outside  the  process's  allocated address
57                      space.
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59       [EIO]          An I/O error occurred while reading from or  writing  to
60                      the file system.
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SEE ALSO

63       acct(5), sa(8)
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BUGS

66       No accounting is produced for programs running when a crash occurs.  In
67       particular non-terminating programs are never accounted for.
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714th Berkeley Distribution        May 22, 1986                          ACCT(2)
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