Re: Advice needed: updating whowatch 1.4 → 1.8.6 on FreeBSD (wtmp/utmpx issues)

W dniu 7.01.2026 o 16:59, Miroslav Lachman pisze:
> On 07/01/2026 10:13, Kurt Jaeger wrote:
>
>>>     Does it make sense to patch whowatch to use utmpx/utx on 
>>> FreeBSD, even
>>>     if this results in a significant, one-time overhaul of the 
>>> codebase?
>
> If you can do that, I'd like to try it out.
>
>> If you would do that, I suggest to get in touch with upstream and
>> upstream those patches, and if possible, take over upstream.
>>
>>>     Is it more appropriate to leave the port as-is (or mark it 
>>> deprecated)
>>>     and instead focus effort on adopting or maintaining a different, 
>>> more
>>>     actively maintained tool?
>>
>> Yes, this seems more appropriate. The search for a different tool
>> can become quite burdensome, so it would be very helpful if you did 
>> that.
>
> I used whowatch in the past and really liked it. But it hasn't worked 
> for me for several years now. I've tried to find an alternative, but 
> haven't found one, so if anyone knows of one, please share. Or if you 
> know how to get whowatch working on FreeBSD 14.3.
>
> Kind regards
> Miroslav Lachman
>
>
I don’t know the exact use case or how /whowatch/ works, but the 
|tcsh(1)| shell still has a very nice feature for watching users who log 
in or out. It can be enabled with the command
|set watch = (1 any any)|.
Add this to |.cshrc| if |csh| or |tcsh| is your shell, and you will be 
notified whenever someone logs in/out.

Cheers

-- 
Marek Zarychta