U0012@DGOGWDG5.BITNET ("GWDGV1::MOELLER") (07/27/88)
Many people have described various ways to find out how long a terminal or process has been idle. What I never saw mentioned was the PCB$L_WAITIME longword, which records the time a process has given up the CPU for the last time. I find that information much easier to use than obscure device-dependent TTDRIVER timestamps. Everything has its drawbacks, of course: while terminal-related timers will be updated by BROADCASTS (I guess), PCB$L_WAITIME is updated by special kernel ASTs, typically generated by the curious system manager doing $GETJPI to obtain the name of the current image (note that neither MONITOR nor SHOW SYSTEM use it!). Anyway, it is a neat conservative estimate; I use it routinely to manually kill really obsolete processes. Wolfgang J. Moeller, GWDG, D-3400 Goettingen, F.R.Germany | Disclaimer ... Bitnet/Earn: U0012@DGOGWDG5 Phone: +49 551 201516 | No claim intended