NAME

       downtimed - system downtime monitoring and reporting daemon

SYNOPSIS

       downtimed [-D] [-d datadir] [-f timefmt] [-l log] [-p pidfile] [-S] [-s sleep]
       downtimed -v

DESCRIPTION

       The  downtimed  daemon waits in the background, frequently updating a time stamp file on the disk. If the
       daemon is killed with a signal associated with a normal system shutdown procedure,  it  will  record  the
       shutdown time on the disk.

       When  the  daemon  is restarted during the next boot process, it will report how long the system was down
       and whether it was properly shut down or crashed. The downtime report is output to the system log or to a
       specified log file. Also a record is appended to the downtime database.

OPTIONS

       -D     Do not create nor update the downtime database.

       -d datadir
              The directory where the time stamp files as well as the downtime database are located. The default
              directory is determined at compile time.

       -f timefmt
              Specify the time and date format to use when reporting using strftime(3) syntax.  The  default  is
              "%F %T".

       -l log Logging destination. If the argument contains a slash (/) it is interpreted to be a path name to a
              log  file,  which  will  be created if it does not exist already. Otherwise it is interpreted as a
              syslog facility name. The default logging destination is "daemon" which means  that  the  messages
              are written to syslog with the daemon facility code.

       -p pidfile
              The  location  of  the file which keeps track of the process ID of the running daemon process. The
              system default location is determined at compile time.

       -S     Normally fsync(2) is performed after each update of the  time  stamp.  This  option  disables  the
              fsync(2).   It  reduces  the  load  on  the  disk  system  but makes the downtime measurement less
              reliable.

       -s sleep
              Defines how long to sleep between each update of  the  on-disk  time  stamp  file.  More  frequent
              updates  result  in  more accurate downtime reporting in the case of a system crash. Less frequent
              updates decrease the amount of disk writes performed. The default is to sleep 15  seconds  between
              each  update.  If you are using a flash memory based SSD or other disk which has limited amount of
              write cycles per block, it might be a good idea to set the sleep time to a higher value to prolong
              the lifetime of the storage device.

       -v     Display the program version number, copyright message and the default settings.

SIGNALS

       SIGHUP Close and re-open the output log. Use in case you want to rotate the log file.

       SIGTERM and SIGINT
              Terminate gracefully. These signals signify that a graceful system shutdown is in process.

EXIT STATUS

       The daemon exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

SEE ALSO

       downtimes(1), syslog.conf(5), http://dist.epipe.com/downtimed/

BUGS

       The reporting accuracy in case of a system crash depends on how often the time stamp is updated.

       Finding out the system startup time is very operating system specific.  If  the  program  does  not  have
       specific  code  to  support  your  operating  system,  it assumes that the system started when the daemon
       started.

       Reporting is inaccurate if the system clock changes during system downtime or startup  process.  Daylight
       saving time changes have no effect as all calculations are done using UTC.

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright © 2009-2013 EPIPE Communications. All rights reserved.

       Redistribution  and  use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided
       that the following conditions are met:

       1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the
       following disclaimer.

       2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions  and
       the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

       THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES,
       INCLUDING,  BUT  NOT  LIMITED  TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
       PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT,
       INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO,  PROCUREMENT  OF
       SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND
       ON  ANY  THEORY  OF  LIABILITY,  WHETHER  IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR
       OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
       DAMAGE.

       The views and conclusions contained in the software and documentation are those of the authors and should
       not  be  interpreted  as  representing  official  policies,  either  expressed  or  implied,   of   EPIPE
       Communications.

version 0.6                                        2013-07-27                                       DOWNTIMED(8)