10.04 LTS - ac -p from acct package incorrectly reporting login time. - Bug??

[Buduk]

I would like to view the total duration a user has been logged into the system for.

To accomplish this I use `ac` from the package acct. However, this does not appear to be keeping time accurately.

#man ac
ac  prints  out  a  report  of connect time (in hours) based on the logins/logouts in the current wtmp file.  A total is also printed out.

That's just fine. But, The time is 17:17 and running:

#ac -p
account-name 0.01

No problem so far, this account has just been created and logged in.

The time is now, 17:25 - Running:

#ac -p
account-name 0.25

A quick calculation - ((25 / 100) * 60) = 15. So this user has been logged in for 15 minutes. However, 17:25 - 17:17 is EIGHT minutes.

Is my calculation incorrect, or is this a bug??

If it is a bug, can you provide a workaround. Or an alternative way to get the total duration a user has been logged in for?

Thanks,

[Buduk]

To update.

running:

dump-utmp /var/log/wtmp

I notice that the user has 2 TTY's open. The one running GDM and the other `gnome-terminal` which I am checking the ac -p output.

Right!! The duration shown is a total of BOTH tty's!!! I tested this by wiping the wtmp file then logging on, switching user and then checking ac -p from another users terminal.

The manual really isn't clear about that is it. heh.

Consider solved.