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Linux User Account

The document discusses 11 commands that can be used to view user account details on Linux systems: id, groups, finger, getent, grep, lslogins, users, who, w, last/lastb, and lastlog. These commands display information such as user IDs, group memberships, login times, currently logged in users, and login histories.

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132 views5 pages

Linux User Account

The document discusses 11 commands that can be used to view user account details on Linux systems: id, groups, finger, getent, grep, lslogins, users, who, w, last/lastb, and lastlog. These commands display information such as user IDs, group memberships, login times, currently logged in users, and login histories.

Uploaded by

rabirm77
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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1.

id Command
id is a simple command line utility for displaying a real and effective user and group IDs as follows.
$ id tecmint
uid=1000(tecmint) gid=1000(tecmint)
groups=1000(tecmint),4(adm),24(cdrom),27(sudo),30(dip),46(plugdev),113(lpadmin),130(sambashare)

2. groups Command

groups command is used to show all the groups a user belongs to like this.

$ groups tecmint
tecmint : tecmint adm cdrom sudo dip plugdev lpadmin sambashare

3. finger Command

finger command is used to search information about a user on Linux. It doesn’t come per-installed on
many Linux systems.

To install it on your system, run this command on the terminal.

$ sudo apt install finger #Debian/Ubuntu


$ sudo yum install finger #RHEL/CentOS
$ sudo dnf install finger #Fedora 22+

It shows a user’s real name; home directory; shell; login: name, time; and so much more as below.

$ finger tecmint
Login: tecmint Name: TecMint
Directory: /home/tecmint Shell: /bin/bash
On since Fri Sep 22 10:39 (IST) on tty8 from :0
2 hours 1 minute idle
No mail.
No Plan.

4. getent Command

getent is a command line utility for fetching entries from Name Service Switch (NSS) libraries from a
specific system database.

To get a user’s account details, use the passwd database and the username as follows.

$ getent passwd tecmint


tecmint:x:1000:1000:TecMint,,,:/home/tecmint:/bin/bash

5. grep Command

grep command is 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: /etc/passwd as shown
below.

$ grep -i tecmint /etc/passwd


tecmint:x:1000:1000:TecMint,,,:/home/tecmint:/bin/bash

6. lslogins Command

lslogins command shows information about known users in the system, the -u flag only displays user
accounts.

$ lslogins -u
UID USER PROC PWD-LOCK PWD-DENY LAST-LOGIN GECOS
0 root 144 root
1000 tecmint 70 10:39:07 TecMint,,,
1001 aaronkilik 0
1002 john 0 John Doo
7. users Command

users command shows the usernames of all users currently logged on the system like so.

$ users
tecmint
aaron

8. who Command

who command is used to display users who are logged on the system, including the terminals they are
connecting from.

$ who -u
tecmint tty8 2017-09-22 10:39 02:09 2067 (:0)

9. w Command

w command shows all users who are logged on the system and what they are doing.

$w
12:46:54 up 2:10, 1 user, load average: 0.34, 0.44, 0.57
USER TTY FROM LOGIN@ IDLE JCPU PCPU WHAT
tecmint tty8 :0 10:39 2:10m 4:43 0.46s cinnamon-sessio

10. last or lastb commands

last/lastb commands displays a list of last logged in users on the system.

$ last
OR
$ last -a #show hostname on the last column

List of Last Logged Users

tecmint tty8 Fri Sep 22 10:39 gone - no logout :0


reboot system boot Fri Sep 22 10:36 still running 4.4.0-21-generic
tecmint tty8 Thu Sep 21 10:44 - down (06:56) :0
reboot system boot Thu Sep 21 10:42 - 17:40 (06:58) 4.4.0-21-generic
tecmint tty8 Wed Sep 20 10:19 - down (06:50) :0
reboot system boot Wed Sep 20 10:17 - 17:10 (06:52) 4.4.0-21-generic
tecmint pts/14 Tue Sep 19 15:15 - 15:16 (00:00) tmux(14160).%146
tecmint pts/13 Tue Sep 19 15:15 - 15:16 (00:00) tmux(14160).%145
...

To show all the users who were present at a specified time, use the -p option as follows.

$ last -ap now


tecmint tty8 Fri Sep 22 10:39 gone - no logout :0
reboot system boot Fri Sep 22 10:36 still running 4.4.0-21-generic
wtmp begins Fri Sep 1 16:23:02 2017

11. lastlog Command

lastlog command is used to find the details of a recent login of all users or of a given user as follows.

$ lastlog
OR
$ lastlog -u tecmint #show lastlog records for specific user tecmint

Records of Recent Logged Users

Username Port From Latest


root **Never logged in**
kernoops **Never logged in**
pulse **Never logged in**
rtkit **Never logged in**
saned **Never logged in**
usbmux **Never logged in**
mdm **Never logged in**
tecmint pts/1 127.0.0.1 Fri Jan 6 16:50:22 +0530 2017
..

That’s it! If you know any other command-line trick or command to view user account details do share
with us.

You’ll find these related article so useful:

How to Manage Users and Groups in Linux


How to Delete User Accounts with Home Directory in Linux
3 Ways to Change Default User Shell in Linux
How to Block or Disable User Logins in Linux

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