"w"-command output interpretation

From: Bernt Christandl <beb_at_rosat.mpe-garching.mpg.de>
Date: Wed, 21 Feb 1996 14:03:00 +0100

Hello alpha-managers,

what i see, when entering a `w' from my du-3.2c alpha is (for example):

User tty from login_at_ idle JCPU PCPU what
aaa r4 xterm1.xaver.mpe 11:01 18:41 3:47 11 - (tcsh)
aaa xterm1.xav 10:57 -
bbb qb xterm2.xaver.mpe 18:20 13days -

I have 2 questions:

-> what kind of problem do i have (see the second `aaa'-line), when the tty-field
   is missing (or overwritten) by the from field?
   I have this corrupted line once for any active Xterminal-session via xdm.

-> why does a user still show up with w, while `ps aux | grep bbb' does not show
   any bbb-processes? (The user of course has logged out days ago.)

To me this looks like utmp/wtmp-related, but is it a bug or a feature?
(I thought this to be the well-known `w'-bug, where a patch exists for;
but obviously it's something different.)

With regards,

Bernt Christandl
                                                                       
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Bernt Christandl / Max Planck Institut fuer Extraterrestrische Physik -
- D-85740 Garching / Phone: +49/89/3299-3346 / Fax: +49/89/3299-3569 -
- Internet: beb_at_mpe-garching.mpg.de -
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Received on Wed Feb 21 1996 - 14:34:19 NZDT

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