error in Man pages

[David Lee]

On Fri, 20 Jul 2001, William Jojo wrote:

> The "utmp" option is listed as a "share" option (S) and should be listed
> as "global" (G).

As originally written and (almost) stabilised by 2.0.7, most of the
auxiliary "utmp <blah>" parameters are global (G) to give overall details
about the server (e.g. "utmp directory").  And most of these parameters
are frills rather than core, simply to override defaults.  (Indeed, one
simplistic view is that we put them in simply to help debug this highly
system-specific aspect and they accidentally stayed...!  See later.) 

But the actual "utmp" itself is specifically and deliberately per-share
(S), to act as a boolean on/off switch on that particular share.  This is
to allow the system administrator to select which shares are recorded and
which not.

[ History: the development of utmp support was a long process, mainly
because utmp processing is highly variable across OSes.  Many folk
provided valuable input to me as its co-ordinator.  We had some good
debates and discussions, but this particular operating model (i.e. "utmp"
is a per-share switch) was agreed (or at least, never questioned). ]

I believe that 2.2.0 maintained this model.  I haven't tried 2.2.1(a) 
yet, but I believe this model was maintained.  (I understand there has
also been considerable code re-structure, but without changing the
per-share model.)

My personal view is that the per-share model is correct.  (Although, as
its primary author, "I would say that, wouldn't I?")  But, as the song
says, "I'm open to persuasion".


-- 

:  David Lee                                I.T. Service          :
:  Systems Programmer                       Computer Centre       :
:                                           University of Durham  :
:  http://www.dur.ac.uk/t.d.lee/            South Road            :
:                                           Durham                :
:  Phone: +44 191 374 2882                  U.K.                  :