Getting back to the colon prompt?

[golgatha]

I know this will seem stupid to guys who have been playing with SCO or UNIX. But I all my experiance is in NetWare and MS. We had a guy leave a SCO 3.x server logged in to root today. I have looked and looked for the right command to log root out properly. If you use shutdown it will shut the server down correct. And wont Kill or killall do the same thing? Will ctrl d work? I just wanted it back to the colon prompt where people could not mess with it.

Thanks

 

[edfair]

exit Ed Fair
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[golgatha]

Mr.Fair
I tried exit and it was like it ignored the command. It did not take me back to the colon prompt and whoami showed me still logged in. Was I really logged out at that time?

 

[Annihilannic]

What's the output of ps -f?

Try typing exit again perhaps (maybe they had started another subshell or su'd). Annihilannic.

 

[edfair]

You could always do whodo and see what you have running.
And you should be able to use one of the kills to terminate sh. But then I guess there are other shells that would use different exits.
exit is the normal way out of the default shell installed for root.
I'm curious about the "exit to the colon". I'm assuming you mean the "log in prompt". Ed Fair
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[golgatha]

Before I had finished I wish I had left it alone. I did make sure everyone was off when I started trying to get out of root because I was afraid I would accidently cut them off. I inadverdently knocked myself out of the shell I assume before I was done. If I typed a command it just echoed it back at me. The thing is they have had trouble the last three Mondays with this server. We have all kinds of healthcare people who have access to the building and come in on weekends to work. Some apparently even bring there kids. When I saw he was still logged in as root (SCO server right next to a MS server I just set up)I wondered if he had been leaving it like that over the weekend. Thus probably the problem. I will talk to CPSI support today and see what shell that machine boots too. And when I say colon prompt yes I mean login. If you just boot it naturally and never touch it it will come to a colon and stop until you hit a key.

Thanks guys. I will get back and let you know.

JH

 

[edfair]

Look into idleout to get people logged out after they are idle for a fixed time. Should help resolve some of the problems. Ed Fair
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[apeasecpc]

First, your servers should be locked in a secure area so that unauthorized people can't access them even if you do leave them logged in. Some people would frown upon the practice, but I personally prefer to leave my server console logged into root at all times, however I do keep it in a locked room.

Second, "exit" is the command to exit from a shell prompt, however unix works just like DOS in that it is possible to layer multiple shells on top of each other, and you must exit all of the shells individually to get back to the login prompt (possibly the tech person who left it logged in was going back and forth between several shells and had not closed out of all of them).

Third, it is possible with the misuse of some commands to get a SCO shell locked in a mode where it is basically not doing anything but displaying keystrokes. You can get out of these modes sometimes by using the [Delete] key, or [Ctrl]+c, or [Ctrl]+[Break], or ~.[Enter]. If all else fails you may need to terminate the process from another login. When your "exit" command was not working were any of the other commands working, such as "ls"?

 

[edfair]

And are you aware that you can switch to another login screen with alt+Fx? Makes it easier to kill stuff from another login. Ed Fair
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[eyedoc1975]

Hi,
If nothing works, after everyone has logged out,
try init 6
Cheers