Installation guide

File Description
wtmp
The login/logout history file
utmp
The active connect session file
pacct
The active process accounting file
dtmp
The disk usage file
The accounting scripts and commands access the records in the accounting
database files and reformat them so that you can use the records for
purposes such as archiving, diagnostic analysis, or resource billing.
The various accounting shell scripts and commands also can do the
following:
• Format the database file records
• Create new source files from the database file records
• Display the database file records
• Merge data from several files into a single formatted file
• Summarize data in files that you can use to create reports
You can redirect or pipe script and command output to files or to other
scripts and commands.
System accounting allows you to distinguish between prime time and
nonprime time. The system is used most during prime time and least
during nonprime time. System use during nonprime time can be assessed at
a lower rate than system use during prime time. You specify the period of
nonprime time in the /usr/sbin/acct/holidays database file. Usually,
if enabled, automatic accounting is performed during nonprime time.
The accounting period begins when the /var/adm/pacct file is created by
the startup shell script when accounting is turned on or by the runacct
script, which is usually run every day.
In command output, the order of date and time information is site
dependent. You can change the order of date and time specifications by
setting the NLTIME environment variable.
12.1.1 Accounting Shell Scripts and Commands
There are 14 accounting shell scripts and 20 accounting commands. The
shell scripts often call the accounting commands or other shell scripts. The
accounting commands and shell scripts create and write records to the
accounting database files. Table 12–1 describes the accounting commands
and shell scripts.
12–2 Administering the System Accounting Services