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

4th Berkeley Distribution                          Release 6.6                                        NNACCT(1m)