See Logged in Users on Ubuntu Linux

Linux from its core is made to have multiple users especially if we consider servers.

And there are several reasons why you want to check the currently logged-in users such as to check for unauthorized access.

The easiest way to check the logged-in users in your Ubuntu machine is to use the users command:

users

And as you can see, it brought the list of currently logged-in users.

Want to know more ways to list logged-in users? Here you have it.

How to find logged-in users in Ubuntu

Here, I will share some interesting utilities that will offer additional information such as the time of logging in, IP address, and a lot more.

So let's get started with my personal favorite.

Use the w command to find logged-in users in Ubuntu

The w command can show you the currently logged-in users and what they are doing.

All you need to do is enter w in your terminal and it will bring the list of logged-in users:

w

Here,

• TTY will show the terminal used to log in. Here, tty7 indicates the user is logged in via the native terminal whereas the pts is used to indicate the ssh connection used to log in.
• FROM column will show the IP address of the remote connection.
• LOGIN@ will show the time of logging in.
• IDLE will show how long the user has kept the system idle.
• JPCU is the time used by all the processes that are attached to tty.
• PCPU will show the time taken by the current process that is shown in the WHAT section sitting right in the corner.
• WHAT will show the name of the current process.

And the above description will remain the same for all the utilities that I'm about to show you.

Use the who command to find logged-in users in Ubuntu

The who utility can show who is currently logged in to your system (pretty generic name right?).

While you can execute the who without an additional option, I would recommend using the -H option to have headings for each column:

who -H

Here, the LINE section will show the type of terminal used to log in (similar to TTY in the earlier command) and the COMMENT column will show the IP address.

Use the finger utility to find logged-in users in Ubuntu

Want to have the most detailed output in terms of finding logged-in users? Use the finger utility.

Unlike the other utilities, it does not come pre-installed and you'd need to use the following command for installation:

sudo apt install finger

Now, all you need to do is execute the following:

finger

And you'd notice that it has some extra columns showing details such as full name, phone, etc.

The reason behind the extra details is that finger is a user information lookup utility so if you added extra details while adding a user in Linux, those details will reflect here.

Bonus: List logged-in users since the last reboot

If you want to know who logged in to your system from the last reboot, you can use the last command:

last

The last command will simply look for the binary database located at /var/log/wtmp to list users who logged in since the last time system was rebooted.

Wrapping Up

You may also want to see all the users on your Ubuntu system, not just the logged ones.

How to List Users in Ubuntu Command Line

Learn various ways of listing users in Ubuntu Linux. You’ll also learn the difference between the system and regular users.

Learn UbuntuAbhishek

This was a quick article on how you can find the currently logged-in users in Ubuntu.

And if you are using any other utilities, let me know through the comments.