Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!usc!snorkelwacker!bloom-beacon!athena.mit.edu!jik
From: jik@athena.mit.edu (Jonathan I. Kamens)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Watchdog program
Message-ID: <1989Nov27.123843.27295@athena.mit.edu>
Date: 27 Nov 89 12:38:43 GMT
References: <21529@adm.BRL.MIL>
Sender: news@athena.mit.edu (News system)
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Lines: 32

In article <21529@adm.BRL.MIL> moore@ncsc.navy.mil (Moore) writes:
>It seems like a program such as this should be very common:  does anyone have
>a program (source, too, please!) to monitor terminal inactivity and shut down
>any processes idle for a certain amount of time?  It would have to detect
>processes that indicate Idle but really aren't (like a Kermit file transfer).

  The comp.sources.unix archives on uunet.uu.net (and, presumably,
whereever else they are archived) contains several such programs.  A
quick scan for "idle" in the c.s.u index reveals:

volume 3:
  idledaemon		Yet another idledaemon
volume 7:
  idle.users		A simple BSD idle-users daemon
  untamo2		Log out idle users
  untamo3		Log out idle users (untamo revised)

There may be others I've missed.

  You have to be careful when mentioning idle daemons on the net,
because for some reason some people feel very strongly that idle
daemons are a BAD idea, and will explain their opinions at length at
the least provocation.  This inevitably leads to a heated debate (read
"flame") which usually repeats to a tee the last debate on the same
subject.

  (Only 1/2 :-)

Jonathan Kamens			              USnail:
MIT Project Athena				11 Ashford Terrace
jik@Athena.MIT.EDU				Allston, MA  02134
Office: 617-253-8495			      Home: 617-782-0710