Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!sun-barr!apple!anise.acc.com!pst
From: pst@anise.acc.com (Paul Traina)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: Why does every xterm create an entry in /usr/utmp?
Message-ID: <1989Sep6.174824.10198@anise.acc.com>
Date: 6 Sep 89 17:48:24 GMT
References: <3472@blake.acs.washington.edu> <JKH.89Sep6113935@meepmeep.pcs.com>
Organization: Advanced Computer Communications, Santa Barbara, California
Lines: 62

jkh@meepmeep.pcs.com (Jordan K. Hubbard) writes:
>Hang on just a minute here. This is NOT a bug, or a "hack to fix finger"
>as most people seem to be implying. There are a number of unix utilities
>that expect every tty (or pty) to have a utmp entry associated with it.

Exactly!  The bug is in finger, not xterm.  However,  I have fixed
(to my satisfaction) said bug.  I have modified finger so that on long
displays (e.g. "finger -l" or "finger pst" as opposed to "finger"),
it will only show one instance of the user logged in:

anise-[root-1> finger
Login       Name              TTY Idle    When            Office
pst      Paul Traina           p1 1:20 Wed 09:20              963-9431 x243
pst      Paul Traina           p0      Wed 09:20              963-9431 x243
pst      Paul Traina           p2      Wed 09:20              963-9431 x243

anise-[root-2> finger pst
Login name: pst       			In real life: Paul Traina
Phone: 963-9431 x243, 569-2158 (home)
Directory: /home/pst                	Shell: /bin/tcsh
On since Sep  6 09:20:14 on ttyp2       
Project: Kernel munging for fun and profit.
No Plan.

This allows someone to see how many times (and where) users are logged in,
but doesn't give them 23000 copies of the user's plan file and all the
rest of the junk that comes along with a long finger display.

Here's the fix,  it's not pretty, it's not efficient,  but it does the
job with the fewest code changes.

-- in route print(),  add the following two lines after the other
   variable definitions:

	register struct person *q;
	register long   minidle;

-- in routine print(),  look for the for loop and add the *'ed lines:

	for (p = person1; p != 0; p = p->link) {
		if (!unquick) {
			quickprint(p);
			continue;
		}
		if (!unshort) {
			shortprint(p);
			continue;
		}

*		for (q = person1, minidle = 32767; q != 0; q = q->link) 
*			if (!strcmp(q->name, p->name)) 
*				minidle = min(minidle, q->idletime);
*		if (p->idletime > minidle)
*			continue;

		personprint(p);

Instant fixed finger.
-- 
Reclaim those words you're afraid of.  There's nothing wrong with being a
pervert and/or slut.  We're very special people.  The best.  Take pride in it.
		-- Hank B. (but I wish I had said it first)