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From: alan@lscruz.scf.lmsc.lockheed.com (Alan Strassberg)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc
Subject: Re: Zombies? We don't need no stenkin' Zombies!
Date: 18 Oct 1995 11:02:31 -0700
Organization: Lockheed Martin, Santa Cruz, California
Lines: 111
Message-ID: <463ffn$gsd@lscruz.scf.lmsc.lockheed.com>
References: <cnordin.813997458@news.vni.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: lscruz.scf.lmsc.lockheed.com
In article <cnordin.813997458@news.vni.net>,
Craig Nordin <cnordin@hq.vni.net> wrote:
>
>Why don't apps die like they are supposed to when a connection is
>closed?
[..]
Check out idled. Here's the README
========== README ================================
Idled -- Idle "Demon"
Version 1.00
Written by Michael P. Crider
with guidance from Mike Jipping
Hope College -- Holland, MI USA
Based on Untamo
INTRODUCTION
Idled is a "demon" that runs on a machine to keep an eye on current
users. If users have been idle for too long, or have been logged on for
too long, it will warn them and log them out appropriately. The types of
checks that idled performs are the following:
idle: If a user is idle more than their allotted time, as
specified by the idled configuration file, he/she will be
warned. If no action has taken place during the warn
time, the user will then be logged out.
session: If a user is logged on for longer than the allotted
time, he/she will be warned and logged out in 'sleep'
seconds if the user is still logged on then.
multiple: If too many user sessions are active (ie. many users
logged on, or some users logged on many times), idled
will choose 1 session for each user to keep, will
warn the others, and log those out in 'sleep' seconds
(such as 120) if there are still too many logged in
then. **** See TODO file! ***
refuse: If a user matches this setting, idled will terminate
the user's session after about a 5 second warning.
The basically "refuse"s access for that user (or
tty, or group) to the machine, though there may be
some time allowed when idled is sleeping between
checks.
FEATURES
Idled is configurable without recompilation for its settings, such
as the maximum allowed idle times, session limits, thresholds before
session limits and multiple login checks begin, and also the important
exemption lists. The configuration file is automatically re-read every
'sleep' seconds (specified in the configuration file). If the
configuration file missing or contains errors when idled attempts to update
its configuration, it will simply report the errors to its log file and
continue normal operation, either with its previous settings (in the event
of the file not being there or not being readable) or with all valid
settings (in the event of errors in the conf file). Idled must exit,
however, if the configuration file is doesn't exist or is not readable when
it first starts, and will also exit at the start if there are errors in the
configuration file (since they should be fixed then).
Exemptions can be set for any user, group, or tty for any of the
checks that idled performs, such as allowing idle timeouts to default to 60
minutes for everyone, but exempting the 'staff' group from these timeouts.
Idled has the ability to handle the console as special, so that
X-Windows environments can have appropriate settings. The special handling
includes giving an idle time for the console, with checking for activity by
checking the keyboard and mouse (if in X-Windows), allowing the person on
console to be exempt from idle logins on that machine, and checking to see
if the person on console is running xlock (or some terminal locking
program--the name is configurable at compilation time) and logging the user
off if the xlock program runs longer than the allowed console idle time.
The special xlock check prevents users from running xlock and leaving the
terminal for a long period of time, but not getting logged off, since other
users may press a key or move the mouse to see if the machine is available,
and in doing so makes the logged in user no longer idle. See TODO file for
a comment on xlock.
The configuration file's path may be specified on the command line,
so that one executable can be used on multiple machines with different path
structures.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Idled was heavily based on the code from Untamo 3. We give many
thanks to Craig Bishop of Deakin University for his rework of the original
Untamo, as well as many thanks to Andy Wilcox and Marc Megel of Purdue
University for their hard work on the original Untamo. Idled certainly
would not have all the functionality it has if it was not for these people.
AVAILABILITY
The newest version of idled is available via anonymous ftp to
ftp.cs.hope.edu in /pub
All comments and suggestions for idled would be greatly appreciated
and should be sent to crider@cs.hope.edu
--
Mike Morgan
morganm@ecst.csuchico.edu
--
-------------
Alan Strassberg alan@lmsc.lockheed.com (408) 425-6139
Lockheed Martin - Santa Cruz, California