twh@mibte.UUCP (Tim Hitchcock) (05/02/88)
Is there a facility for "timing out" a user process when there is no activity ? Is there a SHELL Variable that can be set to cause logging off of a user if they are not using their terminal ? Thanks in advance.
gwyn@brl-smoke.ARPA (Doug Gwyn ) (05/03/88)
In article <2586@mibte.UUCP> twh@mibte.UUCP (Tim Hitchcock) writes: >Is there a facility for "timing out" a user process when there is no activity ? >Is there a SHELL Variable that can be set to cause logging off of a user >if they are not using their terminal ? I don't think the TIMEOUT variable is enabled in the SVR3 shell as distributed, but this is easy to add if you have the source code. In general you should beware automatic timeout schemes; they cause problems because there is no sure-fire indicator when automatic termination would be safe. I frequently have several "idle" processes running that must NOT be terminated (hint: I use "layers"). If what you want to do is to force termination on OTHER people, be advised that eventually they will find ways around your automatic scheme, so all you end up doing is complicating the system and wasting everyone's time. Consider (human) administrative methods of dealing with whatever the real problem is first.
davidsen@steinmetz.ge.com (William E. Davidsen Jr) (05/04/88)
In article <2586@mibte.UUCP> twh@mibte.UUCP (Tim Hitchcock) writes: | Is there a facility for "timing out" a user process when there is no activity ? | | Is there a SHELL Variable that can be set to cause logging off of a user | if they are not using their terminal ? There is such a feature in Korn shell, called TMOUT. At one point in the evolution of ksh (at least the versions I use) this went from minutes to seconds. Big fun. There are a number of idle daemons which will go around and do it for you, using various levels of smarts. I never felt the need, but I've seen them go by on the net. -- bill davidsen (wedu@ge-crd.arpa) {uunet | philabs | seismo}!steinmetz!crdos1!davidsen "Stupidity, like virtue, is its own reward" -me