SEO

#1 (**permalink**) 01-04-2008, 09:23 PM

As far as I know, the history of the "last" command is archived in the
file /var/adm/wtmp.

How can we manage the deep of field of this command ? Is there anay
parameter of variable as we have HISTFILE for exemple for the
"history" command ?

Regards

#2 (**permalink**) 01-04-2008, 09:28 PM

On Wed, 21 Jan 2004 16:03:07 +0100, Frédéric Normand
<fr.normand@laposte.net> wrote:

>As far as I know, the history of the "last" command is archived in the
>file /var/adm/wtmp.
>
>How can we manage the deep of field of this command ? Is there anay
>parameter of variable as we have HISTFILE for exemple for the
>"history" command ?
>
>Regards

Good grief, nobody seems intersted in my question...
Where are the gurus.....

May be I will polish the magic lamp :-)

#3 (**permalink**) 01-04-2008, 09:28 PM

Frédéric Normand <fr.normand@laposte.net> wrote in message news:<515f10lhivd9e8ibfd24mlf0ap93m90f44@4ax.com>. ..
> On Wed, 21 Jan 2004 16:03:07 +0100, Frédéric Normand
> <fr.normand@laposte.net> wrote:
>
> >As far as I know, the history of the "last" command is archived in the
> >file /var/adm/wtmp.
> >
> >How can we manage the deep of field of this command ? Is there anay
> >parameter of variable as we have HISTFILE for exemple for the
> >"history" command ?
> >
> >Regards
>
>
>
> Good grief, nobody seems intersted in my question...
> Where are the gurus.....
>
>
> May be I will polish the magic lamp :-)

The "last" history is stored forever until you clear out the file.

#4 (**permalink**) 01-04-2008, 09:28 PM

On Wed, Jan 28, 2004 at 11:53:08AM +0100, Frdric Normand wrote:
> On Wed, 21 Jan 2004 16:03:07 +0100, Fr?d?ric Normand
> <fr.normand@laposte.net> wrote:
>
> >As far as I know, the history of the "last" command is archived in the
> >file /var/adm/wtmp.
> >
> >How can we manage the deep of field of this command ? Is there anay
> >parameter of variable as we have HISTFILE for exemple for the
> >"history" command ?
> >
> >Regards
>
>
>
> Good grief, nobody seems intersted in my question...
> Where are the gurus.....
>
>
> May be I will polish the magic lamp :-)
>

You can give the 'last' command a number as an option. ex:

last -10

Which will limit the number of results returned. After a brief search through some of the accounting documentation I don't see an obvious way to limit the size of the /var/adm/wtmp file.

HTH

--
Jon Amundsen
nntp@jamundsen.dyndns.org

A "No" uttered from deepest conviction is better and greater than a
"Yes" merely uttered to please, or what is worse, to avoid trouble.
-- Mahatma Ghandi

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.3 (FreeBSD)

iD8DBQFAF8vot9LdhIcbwtwRAkrbAJ9jN2vxTQl/7guStpm2OdDQCYUkCQCgyhya
Ny5yut2N7TUtMzsc7ns4Iwc=
=2Jk1
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

#5 (**permalink**) 01-04-2008, 09:29 PM

Frédéric Normand <fr.normand@laposte.net> wrote in message news:<h05t00tilpuip2o1q8r47s5pgq1esipm95@4ax.com>. ..
> As far as I know, the history of the "last" command is archived in the
> file /var/adm/wtmp.
>
> How can we manage the deep of field of this command ? Is there anay
> parameter of variable as we have HISTFILE for exemple for the
> "history" command ?
>
> Regards

The last command shows the details of the logins since the last reboot
and uses the /var/adm/wtmp file. This file also tracks failed logins I
believe, and so if you get a lot of TTY_HOG or TTY_OVERRUN errors,
this file can get rather large.

What we do on our systems is monitor the size of the file in a cron
job. If it exceeds a predefined limit (say 4MB), we rename the old
file and compress it, then use the nulladm command to resize it back
to zero and it starts fresh.

I know this is not exactly what you wanted, and there may be some
options for limiting the size of the file in of the /etc/security
config files, but since no one responded for a week...better than no
answer at all I guess... ;-)

Steve

#6 (**permalink**) 01-04-2008, 09:29 PM

On 28 Jan 2004 09:24:10 -0800, steven_nospam@yahoo.ca (Steve N.)
wrote:

>Frédéric Normand <fr.normand@laposte.net> wrote in message news:<h05t00tilpuip2o1q8r47s5pgq1esipm95@4ax.com>. ..
>> As far as I know, the history of the "last" command is archived in the
>> file /var/adm/wtmp.
>>
>> How can we manage the deep of field of this command ? Is there anay
>> parameter of variable as we have HISTFILE for exemple for the
>> "history" command ?
>>
>> Regards
>
>The last command shows the details of the logins since the last reboot
>and uses the /var/adm/wtmp file. This file also tracks failed logins I
>believe, and so if you get a lot of TTY_HOG or TTY_OVERRUN errors,
>this file can get rather large.
>
>What we do on our systems is monitor the size of the file in a cron
>job. If it exceeds a predefined limit (say 4MB), we rename the old
>file and compress it, then use the nulladm command to resize it back
>to zero and it starts fresh.
>
>I know this is not exactly what you wanted, and there may be some
>options for limiting the size of the file in of the /etc/security
>config files, but since no one responded for a week...better than no
>answer at all I guess... ;-)
>
>Steve

This solution looks inticing. I will go this way.

Thanks to all of you

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode

SEO

History depth of the "last" command