Re: Watchdog

["Mario Peschel" <Mario . Peschel @ mch . sni . de>]

According to Barry Kokotailo:
> 
> Well, how about this. execute the last command at regular intervals. 
> Check the idle time column. If they have been idle for 15 minutes or 
> more, find the pid of their log in shell and kill their shell. Send a 
> note to them informing them of their time limit viloation. Can be setup 
> via cron to execute every, say, five minutes??
> 
> Anyway, my two bits of thought. Hope this helps.
> 
> iceman
> 
> On Wed, 20 Mar 1996, Jim Meritt wrote:
> 
> >      
> > I'm looking for a way to do this (besides setting and exporting TMOUT in the 
> > /.profile for ksh users) on solaris systems.
> > 
> > Jim Meritt
> > 
> > ______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
> > Subject: Watchdog
> > Author:  "S.Ramalingam" <srm @
 adiblr1 .
 soft .
 net> at SMTPINET
> > Date:    3/18/96 4:34 AM
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > Please let me know,
> > 
> > How to automatically logout the user(s) from systems ( from the shell ), if 
> > he or she does not use the system for specified period, say 15 minutes.
> > 
> > 
> > Regards
> > S.Ramalingam
> > 
> > 
> 


First of all I think you must define what an inactive user is.
It seems to me that the best definition of an inactive user is
that data is neither coming from or going to the users terminal.
This means that the program (or whatever) should test both a terminal's
access and modification time before logging a user off.
The last interaction with the terminal would be the most 
recent of the two times.

Be aware: This assumption fails if a user is downloading 
		  a long file. In this case, although the user
		  is active, the terminal is not.


Mario Peschel