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when I start xterm, it tries to start a binary:

/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/utempter/utempter

I could not find any info as to what this binary is for.

man utempter has no entry, and searching the web for "utempter" only brings up links with possible vulnerabilities. This binary has the s bit set.

Why does xterm want to start i? What is the purpose of this binary? can I tell xterm not to start it ?

Martin Vegter
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1 Answers1

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utempter is a setgid helper which xterm uses to update utmp. It exists so that xterm itself doesn’t need to be privileged enough to touch utmp. On Debian at least it is also used by screen, tmux, mosh and a few other terminal emulators.

You can instruct xterm not to try to use it by starting it with -ut, which disables writing records in the utmp file.

Stephen Kitt
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