Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!pilchuck!amc-gw!thebes!camco!bill
From: bill@camco.Celestial.COM (Bill Campbell)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin
Subject: Re: Overflowing wtmp
Message-ID: <705@camco.Celestial.COM>
Date: 24 Jan 91 17:08:01 GMT
References: <92@tdatirv.UUCP>
Organization: Celestial Software, Mercer Island, WA
Lines: 30

In <92@tdatirv.UUCP> sarima@tdatirv.UUCP (Stanley Friesen) writes:


>OK, now for a silly question.

>I am the adminsitrator of a SCO Xenix/286 system, and the system administrator
>documentation is rather limited.


>I have found that my wtmp file tends to grow without bound.
>This is annoying.  Is there any clean way to trim it, short of the rather
>crude 'cat /dev/null > /etc/wtmp' approach.  (I *do* know about cron,
>I just need to know what to put in it).
>-- 
>---------------
>uunet!tdatirv!sarima				(Stanley Friesen)

This usually is caused by a flakey terminal connection, bad
ground or some such.  The Tandy DT-1 terminals (and I use the
term loosely) would frequently cause this type of problem if they
were turned off.  The cable may be defective, improperly wired...

You can usually identify the offending terminal by running
'strings' (in the Development System) on the wtmp file to see
which tty is generating the spurious entries.  You might also try
'tail' if you don't have the DevSys.
-- 
INTERNET:  bill@Celestial.COM   Bill Campbell; Celestial Software
UUCP:   ...!thebes!camco!bill   6641 East Mercer Way
             uunet!camco!bill   Mercer Island, WA 98040; (206) 947-5591