ACCT(2)

NAME
acct - turn accounting on or off

SYNOPSIS
acct(file)
char *file;

DESCRIPTION
The system is prepared to write a record in an accounting file for each process as it terminates. This call, with a null-terminated string naming an existing file as argument, turns on accounting; records for each terminating process are appended to file. An argument of 0 causes accounting to be turned off.

The accounting file format is given in acct(5).

SEE ALSO
acct(5), sa(1)

DIAGNOSTICS
On error -1 is returned. The file must exist and the call may be exercised only by the super-user. It is erroneous to try to turn on accounting when it is already on.

BUGS
No accounting is produced for programs running when a crash occurs. In particular nonterminating programs are never accounted for.

ASSEMBLER (PDP-11)
(acct = 51.)
sys acct; file