SESSREG(1)                  General Commands Manual                 SESSREG(1)



NAME
       sessreg - manage utmp/wtmp entries for non-init clients

SYNOPSIS
       sessreg  [-w wtmp-file] [-u utmp-file] [-L lastlog-file] [-l line-name]
       [-h host-name] [-s slot-number] [-x Xservers-file] [-t ttys-file]  [-V]
       [-a] [-d] user-name

DESCRIPTION
       Sessreg  is a simple program for managing utmp/wtmp and lastlog entries
       for xdm sessions.

       System V has a better interface to utmp than BSD; it dynamically  allo-
       cates  entries  in the file, instead of writing them at fixed positions
       indexed by position in /etc/ttys.

       To manage BSD-style utmp files, sessreg has two  strategies.   In  con-
       junction  with  xdm,  the  -x  option  counts  the  number  of lines in
       /etc/ttys and then adds to that the number of the line in the  Xservers
       file  which  specifies the display.  The display name must be specified
       as the "line-name" using the -l option.  This sum is used as the "slot-
       number"  in  the  utmp file that this entry will be written at.  In the
       more general case, the -s option specifies  the  slot-number  directly.
       If for some strange reason your system uses a file other than /etc/ttys
       to manage init, the -t option can direct sessreg to look elsewhere  for
       a count of terminal sessions.

       Conversely,  System  V managers will not ever need to use these options
       (-x, -s and -t).  To make the program easier to document  and  explain,
       sessreg  accepts the BSD-specific flags in the System V environment and
       ignores them.

       BSD and Linux also have a  host-name  field  in  the  utmp  file  which
       doesn't exist in System V.  This option is also ignored by the System V
       version of sessreg.

USAGE
       In Xstartup, place a call like:

              sessreg -a -l $DISPLAY -x /etc/X11/xdm/Xservers $USER

       and in Xreset:

              sessreg -d -l $DISPLAY -x /etc/X11/xdm/Xservers $USER

OPTIONS
       -w wtmp-file
              This specifies an alternate wtmp file, instead of /var/log/wtmp.
              The  special  name  "none"  disables writing records to the wtmp
              file.

       -u utmp-file
              This specifies an alternate utmp file, instead of /var/run/utmp.
              The  special  name  "none"  disables writing records to the utmp
              file.

       -L lastlog-file
              This  specifies  an   alternate   lastlog   file,   instead   of
              /var/log/lastlog,  if  the platform supports lastlog files.  The
              special name "none" disables  writing  records  to  the  lastlog
              file.

       -l line-name
              This  describes the "line" name of the entry.  For terminal ses-
              sions, this is the final pathname segment of the terminal device
              filename  (e.g.  ttyd0).   For X sessions, it should probably be
              the local display name given to the users session (e.g. :0).  If
              none  is  specified,  the  terminal name will be determined with
              ttyname(3) and stripped of leading components.

       -h host-name
              This is set for BSD hosts to indicate that the session was  ini-
              tiated  from  a remote host.  In typical xdm usage, this options
              is not used.

       -s slot-number
              Each potential session has a unique slot number in BSD  systems,
              most  are  identified  by  the  position of the line-name in the
              /etc/ttysfile.   This  option  overrides  the  default  position
              determined  with  ttyslot(3).   This option is inappropriate for
              use with xdm, the -x option is more useful.

       -x Xservers-file
              As X sessions are one-per-display, and each display  is  entered
              in this file, this options sets the slot-number to be the number
              of lines in the ttys-file plus the index into this file that the
              line-name is found.

       -t ttys-file
              This specifies an alternate file which the -x option will use to
              count the number of terminal sessions on a host.

       -V     This option causes the command to print its version and exit.

       -a     This session should be added to utmp/wtmp.

       -d     This session should be deleted from  utmp/wtmp.   One  of  -a/-d
              must be specified.

SEE ALSO
       xdm(1), utmpx(5)

AUTHOR
       Keith Packard, MIT X Consortium



X Version 11                     sessreg 1.0.8                      SESSREG(1)
