radacct/radutmp out of sync

[Alan DeKok]

Tuc at T-B-O-H.NET wrote:
> 	Is there an SQL version of "radwho"? I've taught the people to use
> radwho to determine who is logged on, and don't see another utility or
> string I can pass to radwho.

  SQL command-line tools can do the same thing with a properly formatted
query.  So far, no one has submitted one.

> 4. LOG FILES
> 
> 4a. /var/log/radutmp
> 
>   In this file the currently logged in users are held. The program "radwho"
>   reads this file and gives you a summary. Rogue sessions can be deleted
>   from this file with the "radzap" program.

  SQL command-line tools can do the same thing with a properly formatted
query.

> 	It also seems "radzap" depends on the accuracy of radwho to
> be able to pipe information ro radzap. So it seems to be able to use
> atleast 2 of the supplied utilities, radutmp is necessary and can't
> be substituted with SQL, unless I am looking in the wrong place.

  The SQL databases have all of the same information that's available in
radutmp.  They often have more, because radutmp has strict limits on the
kind of records it can store.

  "radwho" and "radzap" exist only to manipulate "radutmp".  If you're
using SQL instead of radutmp, then those programs can be replaced with
programs that manipulate SQL instead of radutmp.

  There's nothing magic about radutmp.  It exists only because 10 years
ago, it was often easier to use than an SQL DB.  There is less need
today to use radutmp.

  Alan DeKok.