Editing Acct

Acct package allows to activate [[process accounting]] in Linux. Installing <code>acct</code> package in Ubuntu activates accounting by default.


* Configuration: <code>/etc/default/acct</code>
* Logs file: <code>/var/log/account/pacct</code>


== Activities ==
# Install in Ubuntu <code>acct</code> accounting package and deactivate it changing <code>ACCT_ENABLE="1"</code> to <code>ACCT_ENABLE="0"</code> in <code>/etc/default/acct</code> and stopping it <code>/etc/init.d/acct stop</code>
# Activate accounting by executing <code>accton on</code> and deactivate it by executing <code>accton off</code> and check status <code>service acct status</code>

<pre>
grep -w acct /var/log/syslog
Jul 29 14:22:00 machine-name acct[23114]: Turning on process accounting, file set to '/var/log/account/pacct'.
Jul 29 14:22:00 machine-name acct[23114]:  * Done.
Jul 29 15:02:15 machine-name acct[12629]: Turning off process accounting.
Jul 29 15:02:15 machine-name acct[12629]:  * Done.
</pre>

== See also ==
* [[linux server administration/atop|atop]]
* [[linux server administration/sar|sar]]
* [[auditd]] (https://linux.die.net/man/8/auditd) allows to retrieve audit records such as [[system-call]]s from the kernel
* [[Linux server administration/Performance and Troubleshooting]]

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