Q. Can you explain the command to find what users are doing on my UNIX / Linux system?
A. Both Linux and UNIX (FreeBSD/Solaris) has w command to show who is logged on and what they are doing.
The w command prints a summary of the current activity on the system, including what each user is doing.
=> The first line displays the current time of day
=> How long the system has been running
=> The number of users logged into the system
=> The load averages. The load average numbers give the number of jobs in the run queue averaged over 1, 5 and 15 minutes.
You can also use ps command which shows you process that are running on the system.
Type w command displays information about the users currently on the machine, and their processes.
Show who is logged on and what they are doing with w command
The fields output are the user’s login name, the name of the terminal the user is on, the host from which the user is logged in, the time the user logged on, the time since the user last typed anything, and the name and arguments of the current process.
$ w
Output:
radm pS 66.90.90.102 Sun01PM 1day -bash raj pW 192.168.1.100. 7:42AM 5 ssh root@202.54.1.20 miku pX a80-186-82-84.el 7:28AM 10 screen irssi vivek pY 196.15.193.111 4:11AM 0 nano -w hireme rani q0 dslbr0.bsnl.in 7:32AM 12 lynx http://slashdot.org/ jadmin q2 dslbr5.bsnl.in 7:33AM 0 ssh jadmin@host.cyberciti.info gad q3 dslbr76.bsnl.in 7:40AM 0 -ksh bencs q5 dslbr22.bsnl.in 7:44AM 5 -zsh vivek q6 gw11-vsnl.in 7:47AM 11 -bash
You can use the ps command shows you processes that are running on the system:
$ ps -au | more $ ps -au | less
So you can use both w and ps commands to find out who’s doing what.
🐧 Get the latest tutorials on Linux, Open Source & DevOps via:
- RSS feed or Weekly email newsletter
- Share on Twitter • Facebook • 10 comments... add one ↓
| Category | List of Unix and Linux commands |
|---|---|
| File Management | cat |
| Firewall | Alpine Awall • CentOS 8 • OpenSUSE • RHEL 8 • Ubuntu 16.04 • Ubuntu 18.04 • Ubuntu 20.04 |
| Network Utilities | dig • host • ip • nmap |
| OpenVPN | CentOS 7 • CentOS 8 • Debian 10 • Debian 8/9 • Ubuntu 18.04 • Ubuntu 20.04 |
| Package Manager | apk • apt |
| Processes Management | bg • chroot • cron • disown • fg • jobs • killall • kill • pidof • pstree • pwdx • time |
| Searching | grep • whereis • which |
| User Information | groups • id • lastcomm • last • lid/libuser-lid • logname • members • users • whoami • who • w |
| WireGuard VPN | Alpine • CentOS 8 • Debian 10 • Firewall • Ubuntu 20.04 |
I want to know who all logged in and what files they have opened and modified
To vinod – Check the individual users .bash_history file. If they havent modified it, you will see all the commands they have executed.
type
vi /home/USERNAME/.bash_history
where USERNAME is the user who you want to check.
Is there any way by which i can attach some terminal so that i can continually read that one ? What i want is that once i see on which terminal a user is logged in,i want to read that terminal so that i can ACTUALLY see whats that user is doing at that time.
I am aware of screen command but i suppose it requires user action.I actually want to monitor a particular users action in real time.
watch cat /home//.bash_history | tail -1
where the user whose command you want to see.
anyone can tell me what is the actual process use w command in linux system to display system and user information
I want to know PID of the terminal which user has logged in and closed the connection without logging out. When I fire Who I can see some terminal process but coud not get there PID to kill those process.
Any one has idea how to find and kill these type of orphan process?
use pkill command to kill users.
How do i get more specific about the Process done?
how can i know who are all accessing my file????
how can i know who are all accessing my file in unix????