Autologout of unused terminals

Hurf Sheldon hurf at batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu
Fri Dec 2 13:55:49 AEST 1988


	The user hostile cant some of the comments re: response
	to users who left themselves logged in was disturbing.  Active
	computer fluent users rarely leave themselves logged in unless
	there are mitigating circumstances. Many non computer types who
	are simply trying to do their work on a computer often leave themselves
	logged in. We have taken the tack of only looking for idle
	users after hours and if our system user quota is full. Being
	irritated at absent minded non computer people and irritating
	them in turn as a response is counter productive. If resource
	management becomes necessary, even the unfluent (as opposed
	to the effluent) become familiar with the constraints of their
	work environment (and will probably begin to depend on the computer
	to log them out if nothing has been doing on their line).

	From a practical standpoint it seems logins idle longer than 1hr
	after 7:pm are good bets to cut off. Idle logins greater than
	30 minutes in a busy public area, idle network logins from
	hosts known to be pc's or unfamiliar hosts and idle dialup lines
	are all good candidates for the axe, too.

	A program to see who, what tty, how long and what day and time of
	day, assign and total priority values and logout any login that
	accumulates enough points would be nice. There could be a
	weighting factor given to particular lines in /etc/ttys for insecure
	or public terminals. I will take a stab at it next week if nobody
	has done it already. Suggestions welcome.

					hurf
-- 
     Hurf Sheldon			 Network: hurf at ionvax.tn.cornell.edu
     Lab of Plasma Studies		  Bitnet: hurf at CRNLION
     369 Upson Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. 14853  ph:607 255 7267
     I sold my Elan, got a job in science; Now, no one takes me seriously.



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