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Name

who - who is on the system

Synopsis

/usr/bin/who [ -abdHlmpqrstTu ] [ file ]
/usr/bin/who -q [ -n x ] [ file ]
/usr/bin/who am i
/usr/bin/who am I

/usr/xpg4/bin/who [ -abdHlmpqrtTu ] [ file ]
/usr/xpg4/bin/who -q [ -n x ] [ file ]
/usr/xpg4/bin/who -s [ -bdHlmpqrtu ] [ file ]
/usr/xpg4/bin/who am i
/usr/xpg4/bin/who am I

Availability

/usr/bin/who

SUNWcsu

/usr/xpg4/bin/who

SUNWxcu4

Description

The who command can list the user’s name, terminal line, login time, elapsed time since activity occurred on the line, and the process-ID of the command interpreter (shell) for each current UNIX system user. It examines the /var/adm/utmp file to obtain its information. If file is given, that file (which must be in utmp(4) format) is examined. Usually, file will be /var/adm/wtmp, which contains a history of all the logins since the file was last created.

The general format for output is:

name [state] line time [idle] [pid] [comment] [exit]

where:

name
user’s login name.
state
capability of writing to the terminal.
line
name of the line found in /dev.
time
time since user’s login.
idle
time elapsed since the user’s last activity.
pid
user’s process id.
comment
comment line in inittab(4) .
exit
exit status for dead processes.

Options

The following options are supported:

-a
Process /var/adm/utmp or the named file with -b, -d, -l, -p, -r, -t, -T, and -u options turned on.
-b
Indicate the time and date of the last reboot.
-d
Display all processes that have expired and not been respawned by init. The exit field appears for dead processes and contains the termination and exit values (as returned by wait(3B) ), of the dead process. This can be useful in determining why a process terminated.
-H
Output column headings above the regular output.
-l
List only those lines on which the system is waiting for someone to login. The name field is LOGIN in such cases. Other fields are the same as for user entries except that the state field does not exist.
-m
Output only information about the current terminal.
-n x
Take a numeric argument, x, which specifies the number of users to display per line. x must be at least 1. The -n option may only be used with -q.
-p
List any other process which is currently active and has been previously spawned by init. The name field is the name of the program executed by init as found in /sbin/inittab. The state, line, and idle fields have no meaning. The comment field shows the id field of the line from /sbin/inittab that spawned this process. See inittab(4) .
-q
(quick who) display only the names and the number of users currently logged on. When this option is used, all other options are ignored.
-r
Indicate the current run-level of the init process.
-s
(default) List only the name, line, and time fields.

/usr/bin/who

-T
Same as the -s option, except that the state idle, pid, and comment, fields are also written. state is one of the following characters:

+
The terminal allows write access to other users.
-
The terminal denies write access to other users.
?
The terminal write-access state cannot be determined.

/usr/xpg4/bin/who

-T
Same as the -s option, except that the state field is also written. state is one of the characters listed under the /usr/bin/who version of this option.

If the -u option is used with -T, the idle time is added to the end of the previous format.

-t
Indicate the last change to the system clock (via the date command) by root. See su(1M) and date(1) .
-u
List only those users who are currently logged in. The name is the user’s login name. The line is the name of the line as found in the directory /dev. The time is the time that the user logged in. The idle column contains the number of hours and minutes since activity last occurred on that particular line. A dot (.) indicates that the terminal has seen activity in the last minute and is therefore ‘‘current’’. If more than twenty-four hours have elapsed or the line has not been used since boot time, the entry is marked old. This field is useful when trying to determine whether a person is working at the terminal or not. The pid is the process-ID of the user’s shell. The comment is the comment field associated with this line as found in /sbin/inittab (see inittab(4) ). This can contain information about where the terminal is located, the telephone number of the dataset, type of terminal if hard-wired, and so forth.

Operands

The following operands are supported:
am i
am I
In the "C" locale, limit the output to describing the invoking user, equivalent to the -m option. The am and i or I must be separate arguments.
file
Specify a path name of a file to substitute for the database of logged-on users that who uses by default.

Environment

See environ(5) for descriptions of the following environment variables that affect the execution of who: LC_CTYPE , LC_MESSAGES , LC_TIME , and NLSPATH .

Exit Status

The following exit values are returned:
  1. Successful completion.
    >0
    An error occurred.

    Files

    /sbin/inittab
    script for init.
    /var/adm/utmp
    current user and accounting information
    /var/adm/wtmp
    historic user and accounting information

    See Also

    date(1) , login(1) , mesg(1) , init(1M) , su(1M) , wait(3B) , inittab(4) , utmp(4) , environ(5)

    Notes

    Super-user: After a shutdown to the single-user state, who returns a prompt; since /var/adm/utmp is updated at login time and there is no login in single-user state, who cannot report accurately on this state. who am i, however, returns the correct information.

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