chkutent(1M)

NAME
     chkutent - check and repair utmp entries

SYNOPSIS
     chkutent [-f utmpx-file][-w wtmpx-file]

DESCRIPTION
     chkutent opens and reads /var/adm/utmpx and makes 2 checks for
     consistency; whether there are any entries that have duplicate 'id'
     fields, and whether there are any entries that are stale.  Stale entries
     are found by looking at all entries that have ut_type equal to
     USER_PROCESS and checking to see if the process (specified by ut_pid) is
     still alive.  If it isn't, it sets the ut_type to DEAD_PROCESS and sets
     the process's termination time to the current time.  It then makes sure
     that the files utmp, wtmp, and wtmpx are all consistent.

     Keeping the utmp file(s) consistent and up to date is important for
     accounting, last(1), and other system administration functions.  However,
     these files are updated by a variety of programs, some of which are
     public domain programs.  If these programs are terminated without giving
     them the opportunity to clean up their utmp entry, the files can easily
     get out of sync.  The exact algorithm for updating the utmp files is also
     notoriously non-standard, so many third party or public domain
     applications may not quite do it correctly for IRIX.  For these reasons,
     chkutent is run by cron(1M) every night and if any erroneous entries are
     found, they are repaired and a report sent to the system administrator.
     There are cases of corruption that chkutent cannot correct - in this case
     a message is printed with the word CORRUPT, and chkutent terminates
     without any further actions.

     If an administrator gets messages from chkutent frequently they may wish
     to start an investigation into which program(s) on the machine are
     generating them.  Infrequent messages can safely be ignored.

     The following is a list of messages and probable causes:

     chkutent:ERROR:write failed on:xx
               The write to the utmpx file to correct a duplicate entry
               failed.  This is likely due to an out of space condition on the
               file system that contains the utmpx file.

     chkutent:utmpx file xx CORRUPT with dup entry and neither entry `DEAD'
               There is a duplicate entry (two entries with the same `id') but
               chkutent didn't know how to fix it since both entries claim to
               represent still existing sessions.  Action to correct this
               problem should be taken promptly.  Having everyone log out and
               then running chkutent will usually work.  Otherwise, the utmp
               and utmpx files should be made zero length and the system
               rebooted.
     chkutent:ERROR:Could not update utmpx file
               The call to pututxline(3) failed.  This is usually due to
               either an out of space problem or that the utmp file
               corresponding to the utmpx file doesn't exist.  It is important
               that both files exist - it is sufficient to simply touch(1) the
               missing file.

     utmpx fix - xx xx xx xx - see chkutent(1M)
               This is `normal' message printed each time chkutent finds an
               entry that represents a stale session.  If no other error
               message are printed, it can be assumed that this entry was
               fixed.

     utmpx dup - xx xx xx xx - see chkutent(1M)
               This message printed each time chkutent finds a duplicate
               entry.  This represents a serious corruption of the utmpx file.
               If this kind of corruption is frequently seen it is imperative
               that the offending program(s) be tracked down and fixed.  If no
               other error message are printed, it can be assumed that this
               entry was fixed.

     The chkutent program may be run at any time by an administrator.
     chkutent does take an optional -f utmpx-file argument to let it operate
     on any utmpx-like file.  Similarly, the optional -w wtmpx-file argument
     instructs chkutent to operate on the given file when updating the wtmp
     records.  If the -f option is given without the -w option, no wtmp
     processing is done.

FILES
     /var/adm/utmp
     /var/adm/utmpx
     /var/adm/wtmp
     /var/adm/wtmpx

SEE ALSO
     getutx(3C)