last/wtmp problems

From: John Deacon <jrd_at_star.ucl.ac.uk>
Date: Tue, 04 Sep 2001 16:47:32 +0100 (BST)

Hi All -

I upgraded to V5.1 from v4.0G a few weeks ago and that all went OK but now
I've noticed that 'last' doesn't seem to be working correctly - if I run
the command it only seems to pick up logins up to some arbitrary time and
then just seems to ignore anything after that. Different machines seem to
have stopped logging at different days/times.
After upgrading I ran 'wtmpconvert' to change wtmp and utmp to the new
formats so it's not that (I hope...) and the files themselves ARE being
updated because I can see the size and date change every time I log in or
out and I can read the connection details just by running 'strings' on the
files.
Here's a sample output from one of our main servers which has people
logging in and out all the time:

 # last
 xyz pts/7 modem-27.paddle- Sun Sep 02 13:44 - 13:44 (00:00)
 xzy pts/5 vega.bac.pku.edu Sun Sep 02 13:26 still logged in
 yzx pts/5 modem-27.paddle- Sun Sep 02 13:19 - 13:21 (00:01)
 zyx pts/7 host217-32-117-2 Sun Sep 02 13:02 - 13:07 (00:04)
 zxy pts/5 modem-27.paddle- Sun Sep 02 13:02 - 13:09 (00:07)
 zxy pts/5 host217-35-245-2 Sun Sep 02 12:04 - 12:12 (00:08)
 yyz pts/5 astro1.bnsc.rl.a Sun Sep 02 10:04 - 10:07 (00:02)
 zyy pts/5 p26.nas4.is5.u-n Sun Sep 02 09:37 - 09:39 (00:02)
 xyy pts/5 217.149.104.51 Sun Sep 02 09:34 - 09:36 (00:01)
 yyy pts/7 212.159.19.103 Sun Sep 02 08:38 - 08:38 (00:00)
 yyy pts/5 212.159.19.103 Sun Sep 02 08:36 - 08:40 (00:04)
 abc pts/5 ppp-1-100.cvx3.t Sun Sep 02 03:24 - 03:39 (00:15)

 wtmp begins Sun Sep 02 03:24

Another machine shows no logins after 15:30 Monday afternoon, another one
nothing since Thu Jan 01 01:00!

This was all fine with Tru64 v4.0F, then I went to v4.0G and on to V5.1.

Further investigation shows that some machines have /var/adm/utmp and wtmp
now linked to /var/cluster/members/{memb}/adm/utmp and wtmp while others
don't...

Did I miss something somewhere...?


Any help appreciated,

 john


----------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Deacon | UCL Starlink Site Manager
Dept Physics and Astronomy | Email: jrd_at_star.ucl.ac.uk
University College London | Tel: 020 7679 7147
Gower Street London WC1E 6BT | Fax: 020 7679 7145
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Received on Tue Sep 04 2001 - 15:48:36 NZST

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