AC(1)
NAME
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 /var/log/wtmp file. A
total is also printed out.
The accounting file /var/log/wtmp is maintained by init(8)
and login(1). Neither ac nor login creates the
/var/log/wtmp; if it doesn't exist, no accounting is done.
To begin accounting, create the file with a length of ze-
ro.
NOTE: The /var/log/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
people is a space separated list of valid user
names; wildcards are not allowed.
-f, --file filename
Read from the file filename instead of the system's
/var/log/wtmp file.
--complain
When the /var/log/wtmp file has a problem (a time-
warp, missing record, or whatever), print out an
appropriate 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_LOC 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
gets listed under the next day where there is login
activity.
--tw-leniency num
Set the time warp leniency to num seconds. Records
in /var/log/wtmp files might be slightly out of or-
der (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 as-
signed 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 /var/log/wtmp file are far-
ther than this number of seconds apart, there is a
problem with the @WTMP_FILE_LOC file (or your ma-
chine hasn't been used in a year). If the program
notices this problem, 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 to standard output and
quit.
FILES
/var/log/wtmp
The system wide login record file. See wtmp(5) for
further details.
AUTHOR
The GNU accounting utilities were written by Noel Cragg
lt;noel@gnu.ai.mit.edu. The man page was adapted from the
accounting texinfo page by Susan Kleinmann
lt;sgk@sgk.tiac.net.
SEE ALSO
login(1) wtmp(5) init(8) sa(8)