---
name: "ac"
section: "8"
platform: "macos"
package: "system_cmds"
version: "1042.120.1"
release: "macOS 26.5"
platforms: ["freebsd", "openbsd", "macos"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/ac/8"
---

# ac(8)

connect time accounting

## NAME

**ac** – connect time accounting

## SYNOPSIS

**ac** \[**-dp**\] \[**-t** *tty*\] \[**-w** *wtmp*\] \[*users* *...*\]

## DESCRIPTION

By default, a record of individual login and logout times are recorded by [login(1)](/login/1.md) and [init(8)](/init/8.md), respectively to [syslogd(8)](/syslogd/8.md). The **ac** utility examines these records and writes the accumulated connect time (in hours) for all logins to the standard output.

The options are as follows:

- **-d**

  Display the connect times in 24 hour chunks.

- **-p**

  Print individual users' totals.

- **-t** *tty*

  Only do accounting logins on certain ttys. The *tty* specification can start with '!' to indicate not this *tty* and end with '\*' to indicate all similarly named ttys. Multiple **-t** flags may be specified.

- **-w** *wtmp*

  Read connect time data from *wtmp* instead of the default, reading from the [log(1)](/log/1.md).

- *users* *...*

  Display totals for the given individuals only.

If no arguments are given, **ac** displays the total connect time for all accounts with login sessions recorded in [log(1)](/log/1.md).

## FILES

- */var/run/utmpx*

  connect time accounting file

## EXIT STATUS

The **ac** utility exits 0 on success, and \>0 if an error occurs.

## EXAMPLES

Allow times recorded in *modems* to be charged out at a different rate than *other*:

```
ac -p -t "ttyd*" > modems
ac -p -t "!ttyd*" > other
```

## SEE ALSO

[log(1)](/log/1.md), [login(1)](/login/1.md), [getutxent(3)](/getutxent/3.md), [utmpx(5)](/utmpx/5.md), launchd(8), [sa(8)](/sa/8.md), [syslogd(8)](/syslogd/8.md)

## HISTORY

An **ac** command appeared in Version 5 AT&T UNIX. This version of **ac** was written for NetBSD 0.9a from the specification provided by various systems' manual pages.