log out user in script

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

Hi,
I have a script giving option to allow user who run the script log out the server.
I used 'exit' when user chose this option. But it didn't work the way I wanted. It only exit the program not the machine.
I used 'logout' after 'exit'. Still not working.
Anyone has some ideas?

Thanks!!!

2

First off, why it didn't work...
code
...
exit
logout

then the process gets to the exit and does that - never sees the logout command. If you put

...
code
...
logout
exit

then it should complain that either logout wasn't found or that it isn't the login shell - you would have to source this script to run under the parent process to actually logout the person.

3

Good idea. How do I do that?

4

Hi,
I still need help to logout of the servers once the script finished.
I wrote in the shell script that if user choose option 1, they can log out the system.
I coded it as exit. But this only allows to exit the program.
I'd like to know if there is a way to not only exit the program but also logout the Linux server.

Thanks!

5

You have to change 'exit' to logout AND you would have to start the script by sourcing it.

You don't specifiy which shell you are using.

For csh:
source ./mymenuscript

For ksh and sh:
. ./mymenuscript

6

I'd use the "exec" built-in function. It runs the script in place of the current shell - so when the script exits so does the session. Handy when writing user menu scripts because they cannot break out to the shell.

7

I just used the following

exec
kill -9 -1

and it exited Unix from my menu program. However i was accessing UNIX via telnet and this did not return me to a login screen, it completely exited the telnet window.

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