How can I get rid of an inactive session ?

jlassiter · 10-27-2004, 02:34 PM

How can I get rid of the root session listed below ? Rebooting didn't do it.

john@linuxbox:~$ who
john :0 Oct 27 13:56
root pts/0 Oct 21 09:42 (192.168.1.102)
john@linuxbox:~$

trickykid · 10-27-2004, 02:51 PM

That could be something running as root but my guess would be that your /var/run/utmp or wtmp file is reflecting the wrong info.. since you rebooted and it didn't go away.

jlassiter · 10-27-2004, 03:00 PM

Thank you.

Is it OK to edit/delete these files?

jlassiter · 10-28-2004, 08:48 AM

I deleted /var/run/utmp and the spurious login disappeared. Actually 'who' reported no user logged in.

After a reboot it still reports no user logged in.
Guess I broke something.

oneandoneis2 · 10-28-2004, 09:27 AM

Important Rule: Never, ever delete a system file without knowing what it does. Rename it instead, then you can restore it if it turns out to be important

Quote:

The utmp file allows one to discover information about who
is currently using the system. There may be more users
currently using the system, because not all programs use
utmp logging.

There's plenty of stuff of Google about restoring a deleted or corrupted utmp. Lucky, eh?

jlassiter · 10-28-2004, 11:51 PM

touch /var/run/utmp got who to work again.

My thanks to those who replied.