What, why, where, utmp?

[Dale Scheetz <dwarf@polaris.net>]

One of my "gaping holes of ignorance" has to do with utmp entries; what
they are, why are they gone, where is the package that creates them?

I know that one of the latest "fixes" to dpkg-buildpackage deals with the
lack of utmp entries, but don't understand why they were abandoned.

I just discovered that the command "login" is supposed to log the user out
and present a new login prompt. This command works ok if you are logged in
as root, but when you try to use it as a user, you get a utmp entry
missing error, with some statement about login only running from the base
shell.

So, if there is anyone out there who can explain the problem (and has the
inclination) I would appreciate some education. A good reference would
probably work as well.

Thanks in advance,

Dwarf
-- 
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aka   Dale Scheetz                   Phone:   1 (904) 656-9769
      Flexible Software              11000 McCrackin Road
      e-mail:  dwarf@polaris.net     Tallahassee, FL  32308

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