Bug 884 - lastb does not work as advertised
Summary: lastb does not work as advertised
Status: CLOSED CURRENTRELEASE
Alias: None
Product: Red Hat Linux
Classification: Retired
Component: util-linux
Version: 5.2
Hardware: i386
OS: Linux
low
low
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Cristian Gafton
QA Contact:
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 1999-01-20 00:58 UTC by rnapier
Modified: 2008-05-01 15:37 UTC (History)
1 user (show)

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Clone Of:
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Last Closed: 1999-03-26 02:39:08 UTC

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Description rnapier 1999-01-20 00:58:14 UTC 
login.c that is provided by util-linux does not use
/var/log/btmp. It also provides last and last.1 which are
consistent with this.

However, SysVinit also provides last, last.1 and lastb which
do expect to use /var/log/btmp. This is the version that is
actually found in /usr/bin/last.

This means that lastb is effectively not compatible with
login on Redhat as installed by default. The major issue is
that last.1 is effectively incorrect. Though it does
discribe the correct behavior of last, it describes
incorrect behavior for login.

I recommend that you remove last* from SysVinit. Ideally a
replacement for lastb would read /var/log/secure.
Comment 1 seva 1999-01-21 17:47:59 UTC 
I asked about this half a year or so ago on the mailing list,
and would still like to see a solution.

Preferrably when there is a log of failed connections and lastb exists
and works...
Comment 2 Preston Brown 1999-03-22 20:20:59 UTC 
Cristian, how are we going to resolve this for 6.0?
Comment 3 Jeff Johnson 1999-03-26 02:39:59 UTC 
Should be fixed in util-linux-2.9o-6.
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