This article will show you eleven useful ways to find the information about users on a Linux system. Here we\u2019ll describe commands to get a user\u2019s account details, show login details as well as what users are doing on the system.<\/p>\n
Read Also<\/strong>:\u00a0How to Monitor Linux Commands Executed by System Users in Real-time<\/a><\/p>\n If you want to add users in Linux, use the\u00a0useradd utility<\/a>, and to modify or change any attributes of a already created user account, use the\u00a0usermod<\/a>\u00a0via the command line as explained in the following guides:<\/p>\n We\u2019ll start by looking at commands to find a user\u2019s account information, then proceed to explain commands to view login details.<\/p>\n id<\/strong>\u00a0is a simple command line utility for displaying a real and effective user and group IDs as follows.<\/p>\n groups<\/strong>\u00a0command is used to show all the groups a user belongs to like this.<\/p>\n finger<\/strong>\u00a0command is used to search information about a user on Linux. It doesn\u2019t come per-installed on many Linux systems.<\/p>\n To install it on your system, run this command on the terminal.<\/p>\n It shows a user\u2019s real name; home directory; shell; login: name, time; and so much more as below.<\/p>\n getent<\/strong>\u00a0is a command line utility for fetching entries from\u00a0Name Service Switch<\/strong>\u00a0(NSS<\/strong>) libraries from a specific system database.<\/p>\n To get a user\u2019s account details, use the\u00a0passwd<\/strong>\u00a0database and the\u00a0username<\/strong>\u00a0as follows.<\/p>\n grep command<\/a>\u00a0is a powerful pattern searching tool available on most if not all Linus systems. You can use it to find information about a specific user from the system accounts file:\u00a0\/etc\/passwd<\/strong>\u00a0as shown below.<\/p>\n lslogins command<\/strong>\u00a0shows information about known users in the system, the\u00a0 users command<\/strong>\u00a0shows the usernames of all users currently logged on the system like so.<\/p>\n who command<\/strong>\u00a0is used to display users who are logged on the system, including the terminals they are connecting from.<\/p>\n w command<\/strong>\u00a0shows all users who are logged on the system and what they are doing.<\/p>\n last\/lastb commands<\/strong>\u00a0displays a list of last logged in users on the system.<\/p>\n To show all the users who were present at a specified time, use the\u00a0 lastlog command<\/strong>\u00a0is used to find the details of a recent login of all users or of a given user as follows.<\/p>\n That\u2019s it! If you know any other command-line trick or command to view user account details do share with us.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll find these related article so useful:<\/p>\n In this article, we\u2019ve explained various ways to find information about users and login details on a Linux system.<\/p>\n\n
1. id Command<\/h3>\n
$ id tecmint<\/strong> \r\n\r\nuid=1000(tecmint) gid=1000(tecmint) groups=1000(tecmint),4(adm),24(cdrom),27(sudo),30(dip),46(plugdev),113(lpadmin),130(sambashare)\r\n<\/pre>\n
2. groups Command<\/h3>\n
$ groups tecmint<\/strong>\r\n\r\ntecmint : tecmint adm cdrom sudo dip plugdev lpadmin sambashare\r\n<\/pre>\n
3. finger Command<\/h3>\n
$ sudo apt install finger\t#Debian\/Ubuntu \r\n$ sudo yum install finger\t#RHEL\/CentOS\r\n$ sudo dnf install finger\t#Fedora 22+\r\n<\/pre>\n
$ finger tecmint<\/strong>\r\n\r\nLogin: tecmint \t\t\tName: TecMint\r\nDirectory: \/home\/tecmint \tShell: \/bin\/bash\r\nOn since Fri Sep 22 10:39 (IST) on tty8 from :0\r\n 2 hours 1 minute idle\r\nNo mail.\r\nNo Plan.\r\n<\/pre>\n
4. getent Command<\/h3>\n
$ getent passwd tecmint<\/strong>\r\n\r\ntecmint:x:1000:1000:TecMint,,,:\/home\/tecmint:\/bin\/bash\r\n<\/pre>\n
5. grep Command<\/h3>\n
$ grep -i tecmint \/etc\/passwd<\/strong>\r\n\r\ntecmint:x:1000:1000:TecMint,,,:\/home\/tecmint:\/bin\/bash\r\n<\/pre>\n
6. lslogins Command<\/h3>\n
-u<\/code>\u00a0flag only displays user accounts.<\/p>\n$ lslogins -u<\/strong>\r\n\r\nUID USER PROC PWD-LOCK PWD-DENY LAST-LOGIN GECOS\r\n 0 root 144 root\r\n1000 tecmint 70 10:39:07 TecMint,,,\r\n1001 aaronkilik 0 \r\n1002 john 0 John Doo\r\n<\/pre>\n
7. users Command<\/h3>\n
$ users<\/strong>\r\n\r\ntecmint\r\naaron\r\n<\/pre>\n
8. who Command<\/h3>\n
$ who -u<\/strong>\r\n\r\ntecmint tty8 2017-09-22 10:39 02:09 2067 (:0)\r\n<\/pre>\n
9. w Command<\/h3>\n
$ w<\/strong>\r\n\r\n12:46:54 up 2:10, 1 user, load average: 0.34, 0.44, 0.57\r\nUSER TTY FROM LOGIN@ IDLE JCPU PCPU WHAT\r\ntecmint tty8 :0 10:39 2:10m 4:43 0.46s cinnamon-sessio\r\n<\/pre>\n
10. last or lastb commands<\/h3>\n
$ last<\/strong> \r\nOR\r\n$ last -a<\/strong> #show hostname on the last column\r\n<\/pre>\n
tecmint tty8 Fri Sep 22 10:39 gone - no logout :0\r\nreboot system boot Fri Sep 22 10:36 still running 4.4.0-21-generic\r\ntecmint tty8 Thu Sep 21 10:44 - down (06:56) :0\r\nreboot system boot Thu Sep 21 10:42 - 17:40 (06:58) 4.4.0-21-generic\r\ntecmint tty8 Wed Sep 20 10:19 - down (06:50) :0\r\nreboot system boot Wed Sep 20 10:17 - 17:10 (06:52) 4.4.0-21-generic\r\ntecmint pts\/14 Tue Sep 19 15:15 - 15:16 (00:00) tmux(14160).%146\r\ntecmint pts\/13 Tue Sep 19 15:15 - 15:16 (00:00) tmux(14160).%145\r\n...\r\n<\/pre>\n
-p<\/code>\u00a0option as follows.<\/p>\n$ last -ap now<\/strong>\r\n\r\ntecmint tty8 Fri Sep 22 10:39 gone - no logout :0\r\nreboot system boot Fri Sep 22 10:36 still running 4.4.0-21-generic\r\n\r\nwtmp begins Fri Sep 1 16:23:02 2017\r\n<\/pre>\n
11. lastlog Command<\/h3>\n
$ lastlog<\/strong> \r\nOR\r\n$ lastlog -u tecmint<\/strong> \t#show lastlog records for specific user tecmint\r\n<\/pre>\n
Username Port From Latest\r\nroot **Never logged in**\r\nkernoops **Never logged in**\r\npulse **Never logged in**\r\nrtkit **Never logged in**\r\nsaned **Never logged in**\r\nusbmux **Never logged in**\r\nmdm **Never logged in**\r\ntecmint pts\/1 127.0.0.1 Fri Jan 6 16:50:22 +0530 2017\r\n..\r\n<\/pre>\n
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