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List:       hpux-admin
Subject:    [HPADM] summary:who(1) produces incon
From:       MC0582 () mclink ! it
Date:       1995-05-30 22:59:02
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Hello Admins,

  first of all please accept my apologize for posting this summary so 
late, but just after I posted my first message, the Internet provider 
I rely on had major problems with email and as a result I was even 
deleted from this list!

  I received only two replies; both essentially confirm that it will 
be safe to change the default id's in inittab to four-characters; this 
should eventually solve the misbehaviour of the 'who (1)' command.

  I hadn't the opportunity to actually try it yet, so if someone has 
(had) different advice, please email (again).

  For now I wish to thank the authors of the two replies I got:

  sda@arentfox.com
  kevinb@nscsgi.nscedu.com

  My original message follows:

> 
> Hello Admnins,
> 
>   suddendly, the 'who(1)' command started to behave strangely on my 
> 712/80 workstation running HP-UX 9.03: it often reports fewer users 
> being logged in, through either telnet, X-Terms or 'su - otheruser' 
> in an hpterm window, than the ones I _know_ are actually logged in; 
> also, 'who am i', simply produces no output :-(, while 'whoami' 
> instead works fine, and so do 'last' and 'lastb'.
> 
>   I RTFM and found the following reference in the inittab(4) man 
> page: 
> 
>  WARNINGS
>       The use of a four-character id is strongly recommended.  Many pty
>       servers use the last two characters of the pty name as an id.  If
an
>       id chosen by a pty server collides with one used in the
/etc/inittab
>       file, the /etc/utmp file can become corrupted.  A corrupt
/etc/utmp
>       file can cause commands such as who to report inaccurate
> information.
> 
>   I'm sure my '/etc/inittab' file is the one coming from HP, or
otherwise 
> modified by SAM; it contains:
> 
> 
> init:4:initdefault:
> stty::sysinit:stty 9600 clocal icanon echo opost onlcr ienqak ixon icrnl
> ignpar 
> </dev/systty
> brc1::bootwait:/etc/bcheckrc </dev/console >/dev/console 2>&1 # fsck,
etc.
> slib::bootwait:/etc/recoversl </dev/console >/dev/console 2>&1 #shared
> libs
> brc2::bootwait:/etc/brc >/dev/console 2>&1          # boottime commands
> link::wait:/bin/sh -c "rm -f /dev/syscon; \
>                        ln /dev/systty /dev/syscon" >/dev/console 2>&1
> rc  ::wait:/etc/rc </dev/console >/dev/console 2>&1 # system
> initialization
> powf::powerwait:/etc/powerfail >/dev/console 2>&1   # power fail
routines
> lp  ::off:nohup sleep 999999999 </dev/lp & stty 9600 </dev/lp
> halt:6:wait:/usr/lib/X11/ignition/shutdown.ksh \
>   # NOTE: run-level 6 is reserved for system shutdown.
> cons:012456:respawn:/etc/getty -h console console           # system
> console
> vue :34:respawn:/etc/vuerc                      # VUE validation and
> invocation
> 
> 
>   I tried to reboot and/or zero out '/etc/utmp' with no success.
> 
>   May I simply change _only_ the 'rc', 'lp', 'vue' ids to 
> four-characters-something to try to solve the problem, without 
> performing _any_ other modification to other key files, without 
> disrupting the system ?
> 
>   Thanks for emailing directly to me any suggestion; of course, as 
> usual, I will summarize.
> 
> Maurizio Scaletta
> mc0582@mclink.it
> -----------------
> Make things as simple as possible, but no simpler. - Albert Einstein
>

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