1SESSREG(1) General Commands Manual SESSREG(1)
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6 sessreg - manage utmp/wtmp entries for non-init clients
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9 sessreg [-w wtmp-file] [-u utmp-file] [-L lastlog-file] [-l line-name]
10 [-h host-name] [-s slot-number] [-x Xservers-file] [-t ttys-file] [-a]
11 [-d] user-name
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14 Sessreg is a simple program for managing utmp/wtmp and lastlog entries
15 for xdm sessions.
16 System V has a better interface to utmp than BSD; it dynamically allo‐
18 cates entries in the file, instead of writing them at fixed positions
19 indexed by position in /etc/ttys.
20 To manage BSD-style utmp files, sessreg has two strategies. In con‐
22 junction with xdm, the -x option counts the number of lines in
23 /etc/ttys and then adds to that the number of the line in the Xservers
24 file which specifies the display. The display name must be specified
25 as the "line-name" using the -l option. This sum is used as the "slot-
26 number" in the utmp file that this entry will be written at. In the
27 more general case, the -s option specifies the slot-number directly.
28 If for some strange reason your system uses a file other than /etc/ttys
29 to manage init, the -t option can direct sessreg to look elsewhere for
30 a count of terminal sessions.
31 Conversely, System V managers will not ever need to use these options
33 (-x, -s and -t). To make the program easier to document and explain,
34 sessreg accepts the BSD-specific flags in the System V environment and
35 ignores them.
36 BSD and Linux also have a host-name field in the utmp file which
38 doesn't exist in System V. This option is also ignored by the System V
39 version of sessreg.
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42 In Xstartup, place a call like:
43 sessreg -a -l $DISPLAY -x /etc/X11/xdm/Xservers $USER
45 and in Xreset:
47 sessreg -d -l $DISPLAY -x /etc/X11/xdm/Xservers $USER
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51 -w wtmp-file
52 This specifies an alternate wtmp file, instead of /var/log/wtmp.
53 The special name "none" disables writing records to the wtmp
54 file.
55 -u utmp-file
57 This specifies an alternate utmp file, instead of /var/run/utmp.
58 The special name "none" disables writing records to the utmp
59 file.
60 -L lastlog-file
62 This specifies an alternate lastlog file, instead of
63 /var/log/lastlog, if the platform supports lastlog files. The
64 special name "none" disables writing records to the lastlog
65 file.
66 -l line-name
68 This describes the "line" name of the entry. For terminal ses‐
69 sions, this is the final pathname segment of the terminal device
70 filename (e.g. ttyd0). For X sessions, it should probably be
71 the local display name given to the users session (e.g. :0). If
72 none is specified, the terminal name will be determined with
73 ttyname(3) and stripped of leading components.
74 -h host-name
76 This is set for BSD hosts to indicate that the session was ini‐
77 tiated from a remote host. In typical xdm usage, this options
78 is not used.
79 -s slot-number
81 Each potential session has a unique slot number in BSD systems,
82 most are identified by the position of the line-name in the
83 /etc/ttysfile. This option overrides the default position
84 determined with ttyslot(3). This option is inappropriate for
85 use with xdm, the -x option is more useful.
86 -x Xservers-file
88 As X sessions are one-per-display, and each display is entered
89 in this file, this options sets the slot-number to be the number
90 of lines in the ttys-file plus the index into this file that the
91 line-name is found.
92 -t ttys-file
94 This specifies an alternate file which the -x option will use to
95 count the number of terminal sessions on a host.
96 -a This session should be added to utmp/wtmp.
98 -d This session should be deleted from utmp/wtmp. One of -a/-d
100 must be specified.
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103 xdm(1), utmp(5)
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106 Keith Packard, MIT X Consortium
107X Version 11 sessreg 1.0.5 SESSREG(1)