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From: jik@athena.mit.edu (Jonathan I. Kamens)
Subject: Re: idle time for w command
Message-ID: <1991Apr29.212101.10931@athena.mit.edu>
Keywords: w
Sender: news@athena.mit.edu (News system)
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
References:  <4274@pluto.dss.com>
Date: Mon, 29 Apr 91 21:21:01 GMT
Lines: 17

In article <4274@pluto.dss.com>, cat@pluto.dss.com (Iain Wacey) writes:
|> How does the w command determine how long someone has been idle?

  It checks the access time on the device file (i.e. the st_atime field of the
stat structure obtained by calling stat() on the user's tty device.

|> We are
|> writing a login protocol using our own devices and w always reports
|> users on these devices as being idle for a long period of time.

  Do your devices correctly update their access times when appropriate?

-- 
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