[net.unix-wizards] request for help

kfg (01/14/83)

I have on occasion seen a peculiar phenomenon on our 11/70 running
V7. If anyone can provide some clues as to why this happens (or, better
yet, how to fix it), I would be most grateful. The problem is that utmp
gets login messages added to it, as if the system thought it was a tty.
This makes for a very peculiar display when you run who, needless to
say. It happens every month or so, and is easily fixed by bringing the
system down and rm'ing utmp, but that's annoying to users. Worse, it
once decided that /dev (the directory) would be a nice place to write
"login:\n" and that was a REAL pain to get rid of.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide,
Ken Greenberg ([ucbvax | decwrl]!amd70!kfg)