hints processing for Accounting-On / Off packets?

[Guy Fraser]

On Wed, 2006-22-02 at 07:34 +0100, Stefan Winter wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> > You don't have to have a User-Name in the request to use that file. If
> > it isn't there and you need it for further processing you can add it.
> 
> Well, no. That's exactly the point: the hints file is *skipped* if there is no 
> User-Name in the request.
> 
> Greetings,
> 
> Stefan Winter
The hints file was originally designed to classify users and determine
what methods of connection were allowed, by using an uppercase 
character or other pattern. It provided a similar function to what 
groups are now used for, before groups were implemented. The letter 
or pattern could be removed before authentication if desired.

Examples :

Uacct01 = UUCP user acct01
Pacct02 = PAP  user acct02
Cacct03 = CHAP user acct03
etc.

The Accounting-On is a status messages from the NAS indicating that
no users are currently logged on and that accounting will start.

The Accounting-Off is a status messages from the NAS indicating that 
all users logged in are being logged off and that accounting will stop.

There is no relationship to any specific account, so hints is not 
supposed to be used. If you are using hints to do some other kind 
of processing, you are likely using it for something it was not
intended for.

If you are using an SQL backend for accounting the Accounting-On / 
Accounting-Off packets are handled by the sql configuration to 
mark all active as stopped for the NAS that sent the packet.