Welcome to the GNU Accounting Utilities package!

Things haven't changed very much, save a few bug-fixes and better
autoconf-iscation.  The package should now build whether or not you
have process accounting available on your system.  Check the file
`ChangeLog' for an up-to-date list of source modifications.

A big thanks to Dirk Eddelbuettel <edd@econ.queensu.ca> for
motivation!

This package contains:

	ac:           summarizes login accounting
	accton:       turn accounting on or off
	last:         show the people who have logged in
	lastcomm:     show which commands have been used
	sa:           summarizes process accounting

	dump-utmp:    print a utmp file in a human-readble format
	dump-acct:    same as above for acct/pacct files

See the file `INSTALL' for instructions on how to compile and install
this software.

NOTE: if you're installing this package to replace your system's
accounting utilities, you need to delete the "usracct" and "savacct"
files written by your system's sa, as GNU sa is not able to read them
(their format varies too greatly between systems).

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Newest, hottest, latest:

  * The dump-* programs are new in this tarball.  I still haven't
  decided what format will make them easiest to parse, because there
  are few separator characters that aren't also possible for command
  names.  Suggestions?

  * Paul Eggert's mktime.c is now included here!  Hooray!

  * If this package isn't finding your utmp/pacct files correctly,
  check the file configure.in script (files.h is now automatically
  generated from the results of that script).

  * The texi file and man pages are now generated with the correct
  filenames replaced for wtmp/acct/usracct/savacct.

  * Linked lists have been replaced by hash tables for a large speed
  increase, especially for systems with a large number of users.

  * ac and last now have new flags `-y' and `--year' for those of you
  who keep your wtmp files for more than a short time.

  * sa works!  The numbers are right on the machines I've tried.  If
  you see slightly different numbers for output than your system's sa,
  it's probably due to round-off error.

The usual:

  * the intro to the documentation is a joke.  Any factual information
  about history of the original accounting utilities is welcome.

  * If you run into a bug, please send a "good" bug report -- a
  message that contains detailed instructions that allow me to
  reproduce the bug.

  * If you can make a patch for a particular problem, great!  But if
  you modify more than 10 lines, I need to worry about disclaimers and
  copyright stuff.  Let's try this: if you find a bug and report
  it, I'll try to fix the problem first.  If I can't, I'll take a
  patch.  Plus, I want to save you work on your end.

  * Straightforward testing: "./configure; make check" and check the
  output files in the source directory (should show times and etc.).

  * PLEASE SUGGEST FEATURES THAT YOU WOULD LIKE!  I realize that the
  standard options aren't great, so I'm looking for suggestions to
  make the output more digestible.  Would anyone be interested in
  scripts/options to produce graphic output (postscript, xplot,
  gnuplot, etc.)?

It's good to know that people are willing to donate their time and
effort to getting the GNU Accounting Utilities up and working on many
machines.  Thanks a lot for the help!

-Noel

Noel Cragg \\ 6244 Aberdeen Avenue \\ Goleta CA 93117-2002 \\ 805 964 1892
     noel@cs.oberlin.edu \\ noel@red-bean.com \\ noel@gnu.ai.mit.edu

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The GNU Accounting Utilities are Copyright (C) 1993, 1996 Free
Software Foundation, Inc.

   This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
   it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
   the Free Software Foundation; version 2 dated June, 1991.

   This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
   but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
   MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
   GNU General Public License for more details.

   You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
   along with this program;  if not, write to the Free Software
   Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
