I am a new Linux and Unix system user. How do I listing my own username? How can I display my login name on Linux or Unix-like systems?

You need to use the whoami command to display your login name. This command display the user name associated with the current logged in user at your console.

Purpose

Displays your login name without root authority.

Syntax

The basic syntax is as follows:

whoami
whoami --version
whoami --help

whoami command examples

To simply display your username, type:
$ whoami
Sample outputs:

You can use this command in a shell script as follows:

## if username is admin, do something ##
if [ "$(whoami)" == "admin" ]
then
     echo "Welcome back admin. Updating repo data in $HOME/foo/bar..."
     ## your commands for admin user ##
fi

Recommend alternative to whoami command

The whoami command has been obsoleted by the id command. You need to use the following command which is equivalent to id -un:
$ id -un
Sample outputs:

vivek

See also

• /etc/passwd file
• whoami(1) Linux/Unix command man page
• Man pages – passwd(5)