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From: convex!expo.lcs.mit.edu!kit (Chris D. Peterson)
Message-Id: <9006011539.AA12934@expo.lcs.mit.edu>
To: envbvs@epb2.lbl.gov (Brian V. Smith)
Cc: xpert@expo.lcs.mit.edu, kit@expo.lcs.mit.edu
Subject: Re: How to get xdm to make wtmp and utmp file entries? 
In-Reply-To: Your message of 31 May 90 22:14:01 GMT.
             <5723@helios.ee.lbl.gov> 
Date: Fri, 01 Jun 90 11:39:19 -0400


In article <MJD.90May31173254@central.cis.upenn.edu>,
mjd@central.cis.upenn.edu (Mark-Jason Dominus) writes:
|> 
|> Our xdm's don't seem to be logging logins and logouts in the
|> /etc/wtmp and /etc/utmp files.  Is there a good way to get
|> them to do this, or is there a good reason why they
|> shouldn't?

Yes.  We feel that a session manager should be logging the user as "on" the
system.  The display manager is only responsible for managing your display, and
this is outside its realm.  Unfortunatly session managers are not widely
avaliable (a shell script is NOT a session manager :-), and so this piece of
useful functionality has been dropped on the floor.  As session managers become
avaliable they should fill this gap.

On a more technical note, Xdm does not have a tty, so adding a utmp or wtmp
entry will confuse programs that depend on this behavior.  For example, finger
and who will not work correctly.


						Chris D. Peterson     
						MIT X Consortium 

Net:	 kit@expo.lcs.mit.edu
Phone:   (617) 253 - 9608	
Address: MIT - Room NE43-213