NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27/NN_1992_27.iso/spool/comp/sys/next/sysadmin/6626

Internet Message Format | 1992-11-20 | 1.6 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!swrinde!network.ucsd.edu!hobbes!wade
From: [e-mail] (Wade Blomgren)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.sysadmin
Subject: Re: loginwindow hooks- ARGHHHH!!!!
Date: 20 Nov 1992 21:42:49 GMT
Organization: University of California, San Diego
Lines: 24
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
NNTP-Posting-Host: hobbes.ucsd.edu

In an article, [e-mail] (David Lemson) writes:
>
> The $1 argument to LoginHook is the userid (name) of the user who is
> logging in.  I do not think that LogoutHook gets this information
> passed to it as well (but would be happy to be proven wrong!  It
> would make life simpler).  This is under 2.x, I haven't tried Hooks
> in 3.0 yet.

In 2.2, LogoutHook does get the user name passed as $1 (argv[1]).  Further,
the LogoutHook _is_ run as the user...if you want to use it to write
a privileged file, the program will have to be setuid.  Another
poster says that these hooks are not needed since logins are automatically
put in /usr/adm/wtmp.  This is NOT true for console logins (at least in
2.2), so you do need to write your own hooks to handle it.  As stated,
though, shell scripts are probably not the best idea (but that argument is
usually directed against _setuid_ shell scripts, not just ordinary shell
scripts - there are tons of ordinary shell scripts routinely run unattended
by root.)

I can post the tiny LoginHook and LogoutHook C programs I use to handle
wtmp if anyone cares...

Wade Blomgren
[e-mail]