[ale] bogus idel time for user

[Jim Kinney]

So the tty is the terminal that started the X session. You have done
nothing there since it started. The pts is the term window you typed the
finger command in.

Login     Name              Tty      Idle  Login Time   Office     Office
Phone
jpkinney  JAMES P. KINNEY   tty2           Jan 30 18:39
jpkinney  JAMES P. KINNEY   tty1    13:34  Jan 30 10:07 (:0)
jpkinney  JAMES P. KINNEY   pts/0       2  Jan 30 18:38 (:0.0)


from mine, the tty1 is the X launching shell. The tty2 is what I jumped to
to test this. The pts/0 was the last term window in X before I log out and
go home.

so there is no keyboard activity in the tty1 as it's launched an X session
which captures all keyboard and mouse.


On Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 6:12 PM, John Heim <john at johnheim.net> wrote:

>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Geoffrey Myers" <lists at serioustechnology.com>
> To: "Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts" <ale at ale.org>
> Sent: Monday, January 30, 2012 11:18 AM
> Subject: Re: [ale] bogus idel time for user
>
>
> > John Heim wrote:
> >> The problem appears on my own linux desktop too. I rebooted my machine,
> >> and
> >> then did a 'who -Htu'. The results are below.  Note that for "Idle", it
> >> says
> >> "old" for my login.  This is a debian squeeze machine.  It just appears
> >> as
> >> if idle time means nothing for a user. I was thinking it might be like
> >> CPU
> >> idle time which is the amount of time the CPU has been idel since last
> >> boot.
> >> So every millisecond you're not doing something, like the time between
> >> keystrokes, counts as idle time. But why would it say "old" when I just
> >> logged n after rebooting? Actually, the idle time for a user as shown by
> >> finger does appear to be total idle time  for a user since last reboot.
> >> Useless information if there ever was any.  If you're a fast typer,
> you'd
> >> have less idle time than a slow typer.
> >
> > Idle time means the time since they last moved the mouse or entered
> > something at the keyboard.
> But its not. I mean, I'm typing the finger command at the console.  How can
> the idle time be anything but zero (or darn near it) if I'm typing the
> finger command in?  I mean, there could be some milliseconds between when I
> press enter and when the finger command gets my idle time from the system
> but not *6* hours. I logged out, logged back in, did a million things. Idle
> time is now *6* hours. Here's the output from finger:
>
> Login: jheim             Name: John G Heim
> Directory: /staff/jheim              Shell: /bin/bash
> Office:  263-4189,  507 Van Vleck
> On since Mon Jan 30 10:27 (CST) on tty7 from :0
>    6 hours 36 minutes idle
>     (messages off)
> On since Mon Jan 30 10:28 (CST) on pts/0 from :0.0
> Last login Mon Jan 30 11:49 (CST) on tty1
> No mail.
> Plan:
> Plan?! You've got to be kidding.
>
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-- 
-- 
James P. Kinney III

As long as the general population is passive, apathetic, diverted to
consumerism or hatred of the vulnerable, then the powerful can do as they
please, and those who survive will be left to contemplate the outcome.
- *2011 Noam Chomsky

http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/
*
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