Xref: utzoo unix-pc.general:5044 comp.sys.att:9046
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!ames!haven!aplcen!jhunix!andy
From: andy@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU (Andy S Poling)
Newsgroups: unix-pc.general,comp.sys.att
Subject: Re: Who is "logged in" when you are running multiple login windows?
Message-ID: <4530@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU>
Date: 20 Mar 90 20:10:28 GMT
References: <2507@ttardis.UUCP>
Reply-To: andy@jhunix.UUCP (Andy S Poling)
Followup-To: unix-pc.general
Organization: The Johns Hopkins University - HCF
Lines: 34

In article <2507@ttardis.UUCP> rlw@ttardis.UUCP (Ron Wilson) writes:
>In article <4518@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU>, andy@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU (Andy S Poling) writes:
>>However (and this is a reasonably big however :-) since my manager also
>>logs people in, it routinely (every 2 secs) checks whether any closed
>>windows are improprly represented in utmp and changes the utmp entries for
>>those windows to reflect a logout.  I think this would make that troublesome
>>UA window "invisible" since utmp would show it as "logged out".
>
>What troublesome UA window?

The one that doesn't have anyone logged in on it.  IMHO, since a window looks
like a tty, if it is active someone should be logged in on it.

>> I consider
>>this proper behavior on the part of my software - to act otherwise would
>>throw security out the window.
>
>Your window manager sounds a "little" busy - I mean why do you need to constant-
>ly rework the utmp file?  When a window is allocated (by open("/dev/window",...)
>), update the utmp entry, and then the same when the window is deallocated (by
>the final close).

Because I run alot of processes (occasionally filling the process table), I
consider having getty (or an equivalent) hanging around waiting for someone
to logout a waste of a process slot.  Since the window driver is kind enough
to take care of closing the window for me, all I have to do is notice when
it does.


>any program that relies on utmp to be correct should be rewritten

I humbly await your new version of who(1) which doesn't use the utmp file.

-Andy