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 generic 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).

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Newest, hottest, latest:

  * Hey!  We're on prep.ai.mit.edu!

  * Renamed long option `--year' to `--print-year' in both the ac and
  last programs.

  * Added a `--print-seconds' (or `-s') flag to last, for those who
  really want the nitty-gritty.

  * Added a `--sort-real-time' option to sa for those who want to sort
  the output by "real" (elapsed) time.

  * Fixed a buffer overrun error in sa which was preventing it from
  sorting the username list correctly.

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.).

  * 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).

  * Any suggestions for better output from the dump-acct and dump-utmp
  programs?  I'm not sure what format will be easiest to parse.

  * If you see slightly different numbers for output with GNU sa
  compared with your system's sa, it's probably due to round-off
  error.  Check it, however, and send me a report.

  * 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.)?

Coming up:

  * The next major release will introduce utmpx support for those of
  you lucky enough to have it.

  * I'm going to try and include ansi2knr in the next minor release
  for those of you on systems without gcc; I have no clue how
  successful that will be.

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

----------------------------------------------------------------------

The GNU Accounting Utilities are Copyright (C) 1993--7 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.
