OpenBSD manual page server

Manual Page Search Parameters
SESSREG(1) General Commands Manual SESSREG(1)

sessreg - manage utmp/wtmp entries for non-init clients

sessreg [-w wtmp-file] [-u utmp-file] [-L lastlog-file] [-l line-name] [-h host-name] [-s slot-number] [-x Xservers-file] [-t ttys-file] [-V] [-a] [-d] user-name

Sessreg is a simple program for managing utmp/wtmp and lastlog entries for xdm sessions.

System V has a better interface to utmp than BSD; it dynamically allocates entries in the file, instead of writing them at fixed positions indexed by position in /etc/ttys.

To manage BSD-style utmp files, sessreg has two strategies. In conjunction with xdm, the -x option counts the number of lines in /etc/ttys and then adds to that the number of the line in the Xservers file which specifies the display. The display name must be specified as the "line-name" using the -l option. This sum is used as the "slot-number" in the utmp file that this entry will be written at. In the more general case, the -s option specifies the slot-number directly. If for some strange reason your system uses a file other than /etc/ttys to manage init, the -t option can direct sessreg to look elsewhere for a count of terminal sessions.

Conversely, System V managers will not ever need to use these options (-x, -s and -t). To make the program easier to document and explain, sessreg accepts the BSD-specific flags in the System V environment and ignores them.

BSD and Linux also have a host-name field in the utmp file which doesn't exist in System V. This option is also ignored by the System V version of sessreg.

In Xstartup, place a call like:



       sessreg -a -l $DISPLAY -x /etc/X11/xdm/Xservers $USER

and in Xreset:



       sessreg -d -l $DISPLAY -x /etc/X11/xdm/Xservers $USER

This specifies an alternate wtmp file, instead of /var/log/wtmp. The special name "none" disables writing records to the wtmp file.
This specifies an alternate utmp file, instead of /var/run/utmp. The special name "none" disables writing records to the utmp file.
This specifies an alternate lastlog file, instead of /var/log/lastlog, if the platform supports lastlog files. The special name "none" disables writing records to the lastlog file.
This describes the "line" name of the entry. For terminal sessions, this is the final pathname segment of the terminal device filename (e.g. ttyd0). For X sessions, it should probably be the local display name given to the users session (e.g. :0). If none is specified, the terminal name will be determined with ttyname(3) and stripped of leading components.
This is set to indicate that the session was initiated from a remote host. In typical xdm usage, this options is not used.
Each potential session has a unique slot number in BSD systems, most are identified by the position of the line-name in the /etc/ttysfile. This option overrides the default position determined with ttyslot(3). This option is inappropriate for use with xdm, the -x option is more useful.
As X sessions are one-per-display, and each display is entered in this file, this options sets the slot-number to be the number of lines in the ttys-file plus the index into this file that the line-name is found.
This specifies an alternate file which the -x option will use to count the number of terminal sessions on a host.
This option causes the command to print its version and exit.
This session should be added to utmp/wtmp.
This session should be deleted from utmp/wtmp. One of -a/-d must be specified.

xdm(1), utmp(5), wtmp(5)

Keith Packard, MIT X Consortium

sessreg 1.1.2 X Version 11