Extra users!

Charles Swarts charles.swarts at gmail.com
Fri Sep 10 18:27:20 UTC 2004


I've run into this problem as well.  What I discovered was that when
I'm logged into gnome and  have a terminal window open a new user
shows up associated with that terminal.  If I just log out of gnome
that user never goes away.  If I close the terminal first the user
gets cleared out and then I can log out.  Typically I type 'exit' to
close the terminal so I can't say for sure, but I think X'ing out
works for me as well, just as long as the terminal is closed before I
log out of my gnome session.

On Fri, 10 Sep 2004 03:19:39 -0700, Nifty Hat Mitch
<mitch48 at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> On Thu, Sep 09, 2004 at 08:55:14PM +0100, Sharon Kimble wrote:
> > Clint Harshaw wrote:
> > > Sharon Kimble wrote:
> 
> > >> I'm using Fedora Core 2 with kde 3.3.0-1.0.2.kde and my gkrellm process
> > >> monitor is showing four users, except that this is a stand-alone and not
> > >> connected to any network [except the internet], and I'm the only user.
> > >>
> > >> So how do I find out what these other processes are, and then how do I
> > >> kill them please?
> ....
> > > See if my postings related to what I describe are what you are seeing
> > > yourself. There may be some .... happening
> ...
> > Following up on this and I've now got 7 extra users, and they're all me! I
> > did what you suggested and the result is here;-
> 
> > and then i did the following ;-
> > -------------------------------
> > gads:~$ kill pid 9334
> > bash: kill: pid: no such pid
> > gads:~$ users
> > boztu boztu boztu boztu boztu boztu boztu boztu boztu boztu
> ....
> > and as I closed every bash down, it all dropped down to '7 users' again!
> > Odd!
> > Anyone got any ideas how to solve it without rebooting please?
> 
> I am not sure that you have a problem to solve.
> (except to avoid the 'kill' command).
> 
> The notion of 'users' is not as strong as many expect.
> Pay attention to processes.
> 
> When an interactive process (terminal + shell) is created
> on login or otherwise a utmp/wtmp entry is made as a hint
> and convenient reference to the system admin.
> 
> When that process exits gracefully the entry is cleaned up.
> The key word here is "gracefully".
> 
> This system of checking in and checking out is problematic because it
> demands that all of the comings and goings be logged.  The early
> implementations worked but then some students (not kind to students I
> know) discovered that the this log file was wide open so they would
> hack it to make it look like they logged out when they were supposed
> to.   The solution was to protect the file.  This works on the creation
> side of things but not reliably on the exit side.
> 
> If you kill a process with a signal that cannot be caught it is
> possible that the exit code will not run correctly and notify the system
> to clean up the entry.  The result is that tools like "users"
> will commonly see 'extra' users.
> 
> Since this is a single person machine and as long as all the extras
> are you I would simply watch and find out what key/click sequence is
> causing a process to leave the party and not telling the host/ess good
> night.   See also last, w, who...
> 
> So watch each 'user' and how you cause that instance of you to exit.
> There may or may not be a bug worth addressing.
> 
> --
>         T o m  M i t c h e l l
>         Just say no to 74LS73 in 2004
> 
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