ACCT(2)                              SysV                              ACCT(2)



NAME
     acct - enable or disable process accounting

SYNOPSIS
     int acct (path)
     char *path;

DESCRIPTION
     acct is used to enable or disable the system process accounting routine.
     If the routine is enabled, an accounting record will be written on an
     accounting file for each process that terminates.  Termination can be
     caused by one of two things: an exit call or a signal [see exit(2) and
     signal(2)].  The effective user ID of the calling process must be super-
     user to use this call.

     path points to a pathname naming the accounting file.  The accounting
     file format is given in acct(4).

     The accounting routine is enabled if path is nonzero and no errors occur
     during the system call.  It is disabled if path is zero and no errors
     occur during the system call.

     acct will fail if one or more of the following are true:

     [EPERM]        The effective user of the calling process is not super-
                    user.

     [EBUSY]        An attempt is being made to enable accounting when it is
                    already enabled.

     [ENOTDIR]      A component of the path prefix is not a directory.

     [ENOENT]       One or more components of the accounting file pathname do
                    not exist.

     [EACCES]       The file named by path is not an ordinary file.

     [EROFS]        The named file resides on a read-only file system.

     [EFAULT]       path points to an illegal address.

SEE ALSO
     exit(2), signal(2), acct(4).

DIAGNOSTICS
     Upon successful completion, a value of 0 is returned. Otherwise, a value
     of -1 is returned and errno is set to indicate the error.