man > ac(1)

AC(1)                                  General Commands Manual                                 AC(1)

NAME
       ac -  print statistics about users' connect time

SYNOPSIS
       ac     [ -d | --daily-totals ] [ -y | --print-year ]
              [ -p | --individual-totals ] [ people ]
              [ -f | --file filename ] [ -a | --all-days ]
              [ --complain ] [ --reboots ] [ --supplants ]
              [ --timewarps ] [ --compatibility ]
              [ --tw-leniency num ] [ --tw-suspicious num ]
              [ -z | --print-zeros ] [ --debug ]
              [ -V | --version ] [ -h | --help ]

DESCRIPTION
       ac  prints out a report of connect time (in hours) based on the logins/logouts in the current
       wtmp file.  A total is also printed out.

       The accounting file wtmp is maintained by init(8) and login(1).  Neither ac nor login creates
       the wtmp if it doesn't exist, no accounting is done.  To begin accounting,  create  the  file
       with a length of zero.

       NOTE:   The  wtmp file can get really big, really fast.  You might want to trim it every once
       and a while.

       GNU ac works nearly the same UNIX ac, though it's a little  smarter  in  several  ways.   You
       should  therefore  expect differences in the output of GNU ac and the output of ac's on other
       systems.  Use the command info accounting to get additional information.

OPTIONS
       -d, --daily-totals
              Print totals for each day rather than just one big total at the end.  The output looks
              like this:
                      Jul  3  total     1.17
                      Jul  4  total     2.10
                      Jul  5  total     8.23
                      Jul  6  total     2.10
                      Jul  7  total     0.30
       -p, --individual-totals
              Print time totals for each user in addition to  the  usual  everything-lumped-into-one
              value.  It looks like:
                      bob       8.06
                      goff      0.60
                      maley     7.37
                      root      0.12
                      total    16.15
       people Print  out the sum total of the connect time used by all of the users included in peo‐
              ple.  Note that people is a space separated list of valid user  names;  wildcards  are
              not allowed.
       -f, --file filename
              Read from the file filename instead of the system's wtmp file.
       --complain
              When the wtmp file has a problem (a time-warp, missing record, or whatever), print out
              an appropriate error.
       --reboots
              Reboot  records are NOT written at the time of a reboot, but when the system restarts;
              therefore, it is impossible to know exactly when the reboot occurred.  Users may  have
              been  logged  into  the  system at the time of the reboot, and many ac's automatically
              count the time between the login and the reboot record against the user  (even  though
              all of that time shouldn't be, perhaps, if the system is down for a long time, for in‐
              stance).   If you want to count this time, include the flag.  *For vanilla ac compati‐
              bility, include this flag.*
       --supplants
              Sometimes, a logout record is not written for a specific terminal, so  the  time  that
              the  last user accrued cannot be calculated.  If you want to include the time from the
              user's login to the next login on the terminal (though  probably  incorrect),  include
              this  you want to include the time from the user's login to the next login on the ter‐
              minal (though probably incorrect), include this flag.  *For vanilla ac  compatibility,
              include this flag.*
       --timewarps
              Sometimes,  entries  in  a  wtmp  file will suddenly jump back into the past without a
              clock change record occurring.  It is impossible to know how long a user was logged in
              when this occurs.  If you want to count the time between the login and the  time  warp
              against  the  user,  include  this  flag.  *For vanilla ac compatibility, include this
              flag.*
       --compatibility
              This is shorthand for typing out the three above options.
       -a, --all-days
              If we're printing daily totals, print a record for every day instead of  skipping  in‐
              tervening days where there is no login activity.  Without this flag, time accrued dur‐
              ing those intervening days gets listed under the next day where there is login activi‐
              ty.
       --tw-leniency num
              Set  the  time  warp leniency to num seconds.  Records in wtmp files might be slightly
              out of order (most notably when two logins occur within a one-second period - the sec‐
              ond one gets written first).  By default, this value is set to 60.  If the program no‐
              tices this problem, time is not assigned to users unless the --timewarps flag is used.
       --tw-suspicious num
              Set the time warp suspicious value to num seconds.  If two records in  the  wtmp  file
              are  farther  than this number of seconds apart, there is a problem with the wtmp file
              (or your machine hasn't been used in a year).  If the program  notices  this  problem,
              time is not assigned to users unless the --timewarps flag is used.
       -y, --print-year
              Print year when displaying dates.
       -z, --print-zeros
              If  a total for any category (save the grand total) is zero, print it.  The default is
              to suppress printing.
       --debug
              Print verbose internal information.
       -V, --version
              Print the version number of ac to standard output and quit.
       -h, --help
              Prints the usage string and default locations of system files to standard  output  and
              exits.
FILES
       wtmp
              The system wide login record file. See wtmp(5) for further details.
AUTHOR
       The  GNU  accounting utilities were written by Noel Cragg <noel AT gnu.edu>. The man page
       was adapted from the accounting texinfo page by Susan Kleinmann <sgk AT sgk.net>.
SEE ALSO
       login(1), wtmp(5), init(8), sa(8)

                                           2010 August 16                                      AC(1)