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ACCT(2) 		       System Calls Manual			 ACCT(2)

NAME
     acct -- enable or disable process accounting

LIBRARY
     Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS
     #include <unistd.h>

     int
     acct(const char *file);

DESCRIPTION
     The  acct()  call	enables  or disables the collection of system accounting
     records.  If the argument file is a nil pointer,  accounting  is  disabled.
     If file is an existing pathname (null-terminated), record collection is en-
     abled  and for every process initiated which terminates under normal condi-
     tions an accounting record is appended to	file.	Abnormal  conditions  of
     termination  are  reboots	or  other  fatal  system  problems.  Records for
     processes which never terminate cannot be produced by acct().

     For  more	information  on  the  record  structure  used  by  acct(),   see
     /usr/include/sys/acct.h and acct(5).

     This call is permitted only to the super-user.

NOTES
     Accounting  is  automatically  disabled when the file system the accounting
     file resides on runs out of space; it is enabled when space once again  be-
     comes available.

RETURN VALUES
     On error -1 is returned.  The file must exist and the call may be exercised
     only by the super-user.

ERRORS
     The acct() function will fail if one of the following is true:

     [EPERM]		The caller is not the super-user.

     [ENOTDIR]		A component of the path prefix is not a directory.

     [ENAMETOOLONG]	A component of a pathname exceeded 255 characters, or an
			entire path name exceeded 1023 characters.

     [ENOENT]		The named file does not exist.

     [EACCES]		Search	permission is denied for a component of the path
			prefix, or the path name is not a regular file.

     [ELOOP]		Too many symbolic links were encountered in  translating
			the pathname.

     [EROFS]		The named file resides on a read-only file system.

     [EFAULT]		File  points  outside  the  process's  allocated address
			space.

     [EIO]		An I/O error occurred while reading from or  writing  to
			the file system.

SEE ALSO
     acct(5), sa(8)

HISTORY
     An acct() function call appeared in Version 7 AT&T UNIX.

FreeBSD 5.0			  June 4, 1993				 ACCT(2)
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