How to control a user's time

[kerijan]

I'm trying to find a way to control (from a main server) a user's time on one of five workstations connected by way of ethernet. <br>The workstations are all using XFree86 and KDE 1.1.2. The common OS for all six computers is Mandrake 7.0.2. <br>Once the user's time is up(preset at either one or one-half hour), they will be automatically logged off X, and the server will prepare a new password for the next user (showing it on the server's screen). <br>Is this do-able from the server, or is there an easier way? <br><br><br><br>

 

[MikeLacey]

I don't know of a commercial product that will do it - but it should be possible (and not too difficult) to write a perl program that would count a bit, warn a bit, and then kill off a users processes.<br><br>Is that the sort of thing you had in mind? <p>Mike<br><a href=mailto:michael.j.lacey@ntlworld.com>michael.j.lacey@ntlworld.com</a><br><a href=

http://www.cargill.com/>

Cargill's Corporate Web Site</a><br>Please -- Don't send me email questions without posting them in Tek-Tips as well. Better yet -- Post the question in Tek-Tips and send me a note saying "Have a look at so-and-so in the thingy forum would you?"

 

[AndyBo]

I'm thinking something along the lines of a Tk/Perl script to pop a warning dialog up on the user's screen at 10 and 5 minutes before the logout time.&nbsp;&nbsp;Make it run by root, so the user can't kill it, with the programs X settings set so that you can't use the X &quot;Kill&quot; or &quot;Close&quot; options from the window frame...<br><br>On the &quot;generate and set a new password&quot; side, when you say &quot;display the password on the server screen&quot;, you mean the central server, or the workstations that people will be logging in from? eg, Workstation 1 pops up the X login screen with another window floating elsewhere saying &quot;On this workstation you can log in as 'user1' with a password of 'xYPP12z'&quot;.<br><br>Is this the kind of thing you had in mind?&nbsp;&nbsp;If so, it's definitely possible.

 

[kerijan]

A popup warning the user would be a great addition, and running it by root would be of most importance for the very reason mentioned.<br><br>For the display on the the server screen, I meant on the the central server. That way, the person doling out the passwords for the users, could give them a new one when, and if, needed.<br><br> <p>David Comeau<br><a href=mailto:davitron@linuxstart.com>davitron@linuxstart.com</a><br><a href=

http://members.linuxstart.com/~davitron>

Davitronique Entrance Page</a><br>