system@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca (System Admin (Mike Peterson)) (09/17/90)
There is a serious bug in all versions of SR10.2 and SR10.2.p in the process accounting system - processes are accounted for more than once under the following circumstances: - all processes run interactively (the process is accounted for, then the login shell adds that time to its cpu time, so when the login shell terminates, the process has been double accounted). - all processes run from a shell script are double accounted. If the shell script was run interactively, then processes are triple accounted (once for the process, once for the shell that ran it, once for the login shell). - using commands that spawn shells automatically (like 'time') also cause all subprocesses to be accounted one extra time. In fact the only way to have a process single accounted seems to be to run it in the background and logout before it completes. Needless to say this has caused havoc at our site where our users are charged real money based on CPU time used. I think this started with SR10.2 (I asked Apollo when the bug was introduced, but have received no response), and Apollo claims it is fixed in SR10.3 (I hope in SR10.3.p too!). -- Mike Peterson, System Administrator, U/Toronto Department of Chemistry E-mail: system@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca Tel: (416) 978-7094 Fax: (416) 978-8775