relics in finger

[usafashu]

running sco 5.0.2.
finger command continues to show two users logged in, idle for several days now.
no processes associated with these logins, therefore no processes to kill.
reboot does not purge/purify the logins shown at finger.
any suggestions how to expunge these phantom logins?

 

[KenCunningham]

Sorry - not at a SCO machine right now, but it's possible that these entries still exist in /var/adm/wtmp and/or /var/adm/wtmpx. These files can be zeroised by:

cat /dev/null > /var/adm/wtmp(x)

Let us know if this works. If not, someone else might have an alternative solution. Cheers.

 

[usafashu]

short answer is - nojoy.
i zeroized /var/adm/wtmp and ..x (after preserving copies)
which also zeroized the links at /etc/wtmp and ..x
and the links at /var/opt/K/SCO/Unix/5.0.2Dp/etc.wtmp and ..x
the two relic logins still remain at 'finger'.

attempted to zeroize /var/adm/utmp, however (evan as root) received error msg 'cannot create'.


must confess i actually *removed* /etc/wtmp and ..x a few days ago with near disastrous result.

i recalled (incompletely) from our time running xenix that wtmp should be manually zeroed as part of periodic houskeeping. however i failed to recall how properly to do it, and so just removed the files this time. the result was i could no longer login. i am doing this by telnet from 350 miles away, and as soon as entering the password in the login sequence the telnet session was killed.

fortunately i had done enough exploring to find the links in /var/opt/K...
more fortunately, ftp login was not affected.
i was able to ftp to /var/opt/K.. and get the files, then cd to /etc and put them.
this restored ability to login from telnet. then used 'custom' to restore properly the links. huge sigh of relief.