Excess sessions

James Wilkinson james at westexe.demon.co.uk
Wed Aug 18 12:52:07 UTC 2004


Michael Sullivan wrote:
> Fearing a hack, I typed
> 'users" at the terminal prompt.  This is what it gave me:
> 
> [michael at baby michael]$ users
> michael michael michael
> 
> 
> Usually I'm only on there twice:  Once for my login to GNOME and once
> for running gnome-terminal (at least I think that's what it is). 
> Somewhat disconcerted at seeing myself logged in three times
> simultaniously (sp?)  I ran finger on my username:
> 
> [michael at baby michael]$ finger michael
> Login: michael                          Name: Michael Sullivan
> Directory: /home/michael                Shell: /bin/bash
> On since Tue Aug 17 20:42 (CDT) on :0 (messages off)
> On since Tue Aug 17 21:24 (CDT) on pts/1 from :0.0
> On since Tue Aug 10 13:31 (CDT) on pts/1 from bubbles.espersunited.com
> Mail last read Tue Aug 17 20:43 2004 (CDT)
> No Plan.

Clint has given you some good advice here: run ps -ef | grep pts/1 to
see what's running on that port. Try a w to see what Linux thinks is
running.

> bubbles.espersunited.com is our laptop that I sometimes use to access my
> account on baby.espersunited.com when my wife is using baby.  I says
> I've been signed on from there since last Tuesday, but I haven't been,
> and in fact bubbles isn't even powered on at this moment.  How do I get
> things back to normal?

It is possible under certain circumstances for a connection to go away
without Linux noticing (often pulling the network cable will do that).
If the connection isn't using keepalives and neither side notices that
that particular computer is unreachable, it's quite possible to plug the
cable in days later and carry on. (Obviously, closing programs or
rebooting either side scuppers that).

> And while we're on the subject, what does it
> mean by saying "No Plan"?  What is a user plan and how do I define one?

You define a plan by putting text in ~/.plan. Other people who finger you
can then read what you're up to.

Think of a university shell server with thousands of users: it was a
way of keeping up with one another (in theory) and a fun place to put
stuff (in practice).

James.

-- 
E-mail address: james | Never meddle in the affairs of Windows NT. It is
@westexe.demon.co.uk  | slow to boot and quick to crash.





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