Using the kstat Interface to Get Idle Time

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The following codesample may contain actual software programs in source code form. This source code is made available for developers to use as needed, pursuant to the terms and conditions of this license.
 

Overview:

Users have experienced a problem with power management in the Solaris[tm] 8 Operating Environment (OE), update 6 (10/01). When they try to get the device idle time on update 5, they have no trouble. However, on update 6 their code fails. This code makes use of the power management ioctl PM_GET_TIME_IDLE to read the idle time from the consms and conskbd driver modules.

Sample Program:

Starting with the Solaris 8 OE, update 6 (10/01), use the kstat interface to get the idle time for the keyboard and mouse.

See the following idle.c sample program:

/* 
 * This program calculates the idle time of a keyboard and mouse using 
 * kstat interface. 
 * 
 * The program can be used on Solaris 8 Update 6 (10/01) and above only. 
 * 
 * The program needs to be compiled as: 
 * 
 * cc -o idle -lkstat idle.c 
 * 
 * Invoke the program binary as :./idle 
 * 
 * The program output is idle time of keyboard and mouse in seconds. 
 * 
*/ 

#include  <kstat.h> 
#include  <time.h> 

static  kstat_ctl_t     *kc;                    /* libkstat cookie */ 
static  kstat_t         *kbd_ksp; 
static  kstat_t         *ms_ksp; 

long kbd_idle_time(void); 
static  void    kbd_init(void); 
static  void    ms_init(void); 
long ms_idle_time(void); 

/* Returns the number of seconds since the last keystroke on console keyboard */ 

long 
kbd_idle_time(void) 
{ 
        void *p; 

        if (kbd_ksp == NULL || kstat_read(kc, kbd_ksp, NULL) == -1 || 
            (p = kstat_data_lookup(kbd_ksp, "idle_sec")) == NULL){ 
                return ((time_t)-1); 
           } 
        return (((kstat_named_t *)p)->value.l); 
} 

/* Returns the number of seconds since the most recent movement or click on console mouse */ 

long 
ms_idle_time(void) 
{ 
  void *p; 

if(ms_ksp == NULL || kstat_read(kc,ms_ksp,NULL) == -1 || (p = kstat_data_lookup(ms_ksp, "idle_sec"))
== NULL) { 
             return((time_t)-1); 
             } 

  return(((kstat_named_t *)p)-> value.l); 

} 

static void 
kbd_init(void) 
{ 
        kbd_ksp = kstat_lookup(kc, "conskbd", 0, "activity"); 
        if(kbd_ksp == NULL){ 
             printf("Keyboard init failed\n"); 
             exit(-1); 
             } 
} 

static void 
ms_init(void) 
{ 
       ms_ksp = kstat_lookup(kc, "consms", 0, "activity"); 
       if(ms_ksp == NULL){ 
              printf("Mouse init failed\n"); 
              exit(-1); 
             } 
} 

main() 
{ 

int kbd; 
int ms; 

/* kstat_open() will initialize a kstat control structure */ 

if ((kc = kstat_open()) == NULL) { 
               printf("kstat_open(): can't open /dev/kstat\n"); 
               exit(-1); 
               } 

kbd_init(); 
ms_init(); 

if((kbd = (int)kbd_idle_time()) < 0){ 
              printf("failed to get idle time for console keyboard\n"); 
              exit(-1); 
              } 

printf("Idle time of keyboard>:%d\n",kbd); 

if((ms = (int)ms_idle_time()) < 0){ 
              printf("failed to get idle time for console mouse\n"); 
              exit(-1); 
              } 

printf("Idle time of mouse>:%d\n",ms); 

kstat_close(kc); 

} 
  

PROGRAM EXECUTION:
 

Some idle time testing scenarios are given below:

CASE A:

When a user is executing this program on the console and using only the keyboard (mouse being idle):

% ./idle
Idle time of keyboard>:0
Idle time of mouse>:20

CASE B:

When a user is executing this program on the console and simultaneously moving the mouse pointer:

% ./idle
Idle time of keyboard>:0
Idle time of mouse>:0

CASE C:

When a user is remotely logged into a system on which both the keyboard and mouse are idle for sometime:

% ./idle
Idle time of keyboard>:124
Idle time of mouse>:124

REFERENCES:

Man pages for kstat(3KSTAT)