NAME

       nnacct - news accounting and access authorization (nn)

SYNOPSIS

       nnacct -r [ -f file ] [ -a ] [ user ]...
       nnacct [ -ppolicy ] [ -qquota ] user...
       nnacct -ZERO

DESCRIPTION

       The  nnacct  command  provides  an  optional  accounting and access authorization for news
       reading via the nn news reader.

       The first form (-r) is used to print accounting reports.  If a file is specified data from
       a saved accounting file; otherwise the data is read from the current accounting file.

       If  -a is specified, the report will contain accounting data for all users.  Otherwise, if
       one or more users are specified, the data for these users will be printed.  If  neiter  is
       specified, only the accounting data for the current user is printed.
         Only the super-user can generate reports for other users than the caller.

       The  second  form  (-p  and/or -q) assigns the specified access policy and/or quota to the
       specified users.  If a given user is not already known in the accounting file, a new entry
       with  the  specified  policy and quota is created (default values are used if both are not
       specified).

       The third form (-ZERO) will clear the usage counts for all users.  Individual usage counts
       cannot be cleared.  The original accounting file is saved with a .old suffix.

       The following policies are currently implemented:

       0      No access.  The user is not allowed to read news at all.

       1      Privileged user.  The user can read news at all times and no accounting information
              is saved.  This is obviously the policy for system administrators :-)

       2      Full time access.  The user can access news at all times.

       3      Off-hours access.  The user can only access news at off hours, i.e. in the morning,
              in the evening, on week-ends, and on holidays (not complete - check the source :-)

       The  quota  specifies a number of hours which the user is allowed to read news.  When this
       quota is used up, access will be blocked.  A quota of zero gives unlimited access.

       New users will get the default policy and quota defined in account.c.  If this allows  new
       users  to  read  news  at  only specific times, this form can be used to permit individual
       users to read news at all times, or it can be used to prevent them from  reading  news  at
       all.   If the default policy does not allow new users to read news, this form must be used
       to authorize them to read news.

HOW IT WORKS

       If authorization is enabled, the nn news reader will call  nnacct  on  start-up  to  check
       whether  the policy and quota defined for the current user allows him to read news at this
       time (or at all).

       If accounting is enabled, the nn news reader will call nnacct on exit to register the time
       spent  on  news  reading.   If account logging is also defined (see account.c), an line is
       also added to the accounting log file.

       When accounting is defined, the user  can  use  the  :cost  command  to  get  the  current
       accounting  data,  and  if  the  variable  report-cost  is  set,  nn will print accounting
       information on exit.

CONTIGURATION AND NEW POLICIES

       The  use  of  nnacct  is  enabled  via  the  ACCOUNTING  and  AUTHORIZE  symbols  in  nn's
       configuration  file.  Further configuration of cost calculations, logging, default policy,
       default quotas, etc. is done directly in the source file account.c.  New  access  policies
       can  also  be  defined  in  this  file.   This allows you to change the policies or prices
       without having to recompile the whole package since only nnacct is modified.

PRIVILEGED USERS

       Normally, only root is allowed to change user policy or quota, list all user's  accounting
       data  etc.   This  privilege can be shared with other users by listing their login name in
       the file $CLIENT/admins.  There should be exactly one login name per line, and  no  blanks
       are allowed.

FILES

       $db/acct      accounting data (accumulated per user)
       $db/acctlog   accounting log (grows indefinitely)
       $lib/admins   login names of privileged nnacct users.

SEE ALSO

       nn(1), nnusage(1)

BUGS

       There  should  be  some  tools  to  mess  around  with  the accounting files, e.g. to make
       summaries, clear usage counters, etc.

AUTHOR

       Kim F. Storm, Texas Instruments A/S, Denmark
       E-mail: storm@texas.dk