[1993] in RedHat Linux List
RE: w
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Castelijn, Maurice)
Thu Oct 31 07:51:36 1996
From: "Castelijn, Maurice" <Castelijn.Maurice@kpmg.nl>
To: "redhat-list@redhat.com" <redhat-list@redhat.com>
Date: Thu, 31 Oct 1996 11:58:55 +0100
Resent-From: redhat-list@redhat.com
Reply-To: redhat-list@redhat.com
>----------
>From: Philip Blundell[SMTP:pjb27@cam.ac.uk]
>Sent: donderdag 31 oktober 1996 12:12
>To: Castelijn, Maurice
>Cc: redhat-list@redhat.com
>Subject: RE: w
>
>On Thu, 31 Oct 1996, Castelijn, Maurice wrote:
>
>> >All the fields look valid there, but the "FROM" one isn't being truncated
>> >as it should. This is a bit less annoying, but still looks messy.
>>
>> How about looking at your /var/run/utmp file? Then look at the
>> permissions.
>> They MUST be set to -rw-r--r-- ... else you might have a problem other
>
>They are. What makes you think the permissions might be wrong?
You never know what others might do on a system, and since a friend of
mine had a problem of the same kind, after he removed the utmp file and
set the permissions wrong. That's how he got the non-update of the
'w'-listing.
>
>> users can write it. Look for a "man utmp" if you've got other questions.
>> Perhaps that's of your help.
>
>I have read the manual page for utmp. Perhaps you didn't understand the
>problem; why don't you go back and read my original message again? I've
>quoted the crux of it at the top of this one in case you lost it.
Why I said that, I remember a quote in the manpage...
"Warning: utmp must be writable, because many system programs depend on
its integrity. You risk faked system logfiles and modifications of
system files if you leave utmp writable to any user."
Perhaps that explains it? =)
That "rm /etc/psdevtab" was the solution, was not within my knowledge. I
don't have a file like that on my system (and previous systems). I'm
glad to know about it now though.
>phil
Maurice.
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