Linux / Unix: Check Last Time User Logged In On The System
I
am a new Unix system admin. How do I find ouw who has recently use the Linux or Unix-like server? Which terminals they used, and when they logged in and out of the my server?
You need to use last command. This command displays last logins of users and ttys.
Listing the Last times a user logged in on server
The syntax is as follows:
last
OR
last [UserNameHere]
OR
last [option] [UserNameHere]
Example: Display Linux user last login
To display when a user named ‘vivek’ last logged in to the system, type:
$ last vivek
$ last vivek | less
Sample outputs:
Fig.01: last command in action on my Debian base nas server
The output in this example tell us when user vivek last logged in. The output will go back for several months or more as last command searches back through the file /var/log/wtmp and displays a list of all users logged in (and out) since that file was created.
Display a list of recent system use for all users
Simply type the last command:
$ last
OR
$ last | less
Sample outputs taken from my RHEL based server:
root pts/0 10.1.6.120 Mon Jan 27 06:26 still logged in
root pts/0 10.1.6.120 Mon Jan 27 03:37 – 06:26 (02:48)
root pts/0 10.1.6.120 Sun Jan 26 02:47 – 09:28 (06:40)
root pts/4 10.1.6.120 Sat Jan 25 11:02 – 11:02 (00:00)
root pts/0 10.1.6.120 Sat Jan 25 10:15 – 13:12 (02:56)
root pts/4 10.1.6.120 Sat Jan 25 06:01 – 06:32 (00:31)
root pts/0 10.1.6.120 Sat Jan 25 03:08 – 09:04 (05:55)
root pts/4 10.1.6.120 Sat Jan 25 01:06 – 03:18 (02:11)
root pts/0 10.1.6.120 Fri Jan 24 23:59 – 02:11 (02:12)
root pts/0 10.1.6.120 Fri Jan 24 05:30 – 08:39 (03:08)
root pts/0 10.1.6.120 Thu Jan 23 04:22 – 05:41 (01:19)
….
…
…
root pts/1 10.1.6.120 Sun Jan 5 11:09 – 14:29 (03:20)
root pts/0 10.1.6.120 Sun Jan 5 10:05 – 12:19 (02:14)
reboot system boot 2.6.32-431.3.1.e Sun Jan 5 10:02 – 06:52 (21+20:50)
root pts/0 10.1.6.120 Sun Jan 5 09:58 – down (00:00)
root pts/0 10.1.6.120 Sun Jan 5 03:33 – 05:45 (02:12)
root pts/1 10.1.6.120 Sat Jan 4 15:06 – 17:28 (02:21)
root pts/0 10.1.6.120 Sat Jan 4 13:46 – 15:58 (02:11)
root pts/0 10.1.6.120 Sat Jan 4 05:05 – 07:16 (02:11)
root pts/1 10.1.6.120 Fri Jan 3 14:29 – 15:44 (01:15)
root pts/0 10.1.6.120 Fri Jan 3 13:20 – 15:32 (02:11)
root pts/0 10.1.6.120 Thu Jan 2 05:19 – 05:32 (00:13)
root pts/0 10.1.6.120 Tue Dec 31 13:57 – 16:06 (02:09)
wtmp begins Tue Dec 31 13:57:23 2013
See also
I strongly suggest that you see our last command examples page.
Read last(1).
See /var/log/wtmp file.