Last Command Examples For Linux And Unix

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How to find out last logins of users and times informations on Linux/Unix-like operating systems ?

You need to use the last command to show who has recently used the server and logged in and out date/time.

 

The last command reads listing of last logged in users from the system file called /var/log/wtmp or the file designated by the -f options.

Purpose

To find out when a particular user last logged in to the Linux or Unix server.

Syntax

The basic syntax is:

last
last [userNameHere] last [tty] last [options] [userNameHere]

If no options provided last command displays a list of all users logged in (and out) since /var/log/wtmp file was created. You can filter out results by supplying names of users and tty’s to show only those entries matching the username/tty.

last command examples

To find out who has recently logged in and out on your server, type:
$ last
Sample outputs:

root     pts/1        10.1.6.120       Tue Jan 28 05:59   still logged in   
root     pts/0        10.1.6.120       Tue Jan 28 04:08   still logged in   
root     pts/0        10.1.6.120       Sat Jan 25 06:33 - 08:55  (02:22)    
root     pts/1        10.1.6.120       Thu Jan 23 14:47 - 14:51  (00:03)    
root     pts/0        10.1.6.120       Thu Jan 23 13:02 - 14:51  (01:48)    
root     pts/0        10.1.6.120       Tue Jan  7 12:02 - 12:38  (00:35)    
 
wtmp begins Tue Jan  7 12:02:54 2014

You can specifies a file to search other than /var/log/wtmp using -f option. For example, search /nas/server/webserver/.log/wtmp:
$ last -f /nas/server/webserver/.log/wtmp
last -f /nas/server/webserver/.log/wtmp userNameHere

List all users last logged in/out time

last command searches back through the file /var/log/wtmp file and the output may go back to several months. Just use the less command or more command as follows to display output one screen at a time:
$ last | more
last | less

List a particular user last logged in

To find out when user vivek last logged in, type:
$ last vivek
$ last vivek | less
$ last vivek | grep 'Thu Jan 23'


Sample outputs:

Fig. 01 Displaying out when user vivek last logged in on server

Fig. 01 Displaying out when user vivek last logged in on server

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