how can i see list of logged on users?
 

my cpu crawled so i typed 'w' to see who is logged in..
there's nobody..
but in 'top', someone was excuting vi with cpu83% ..lol

why 'w' doesn't work?
what alternatives are out there?

thank you

Top shows you also who's running the program (second column).
Instead of 'w' you can use 'last'. It shows a list of recently logged users.

'users' gives me a list of logged in users. If I have 17 xterms open, each one will show up as a new user under the same name. So sometimes 'users' will give me like 20 entries for root, and I am freakin out. Then I realize what's going on, he he he ;)

You shouldn't be logged as root so many times :D

i guess i can log-on and start process
and log off without quitting the process.

i think i 've seen it before..
but don't know how to do it..

anyway, thx

nohup
( To keep the process running even after you logout)
I had this doubt in my mind for a long time. Is there a software that will check for such orphan processes and kill them?
--Sarin

Or you can use screen

ssh into your host, and start whatever program you want, lets say you want to do a little irc: screen Bitchx
ok now your using Bitchx in your fav channel, you want to quit your ssh session but still have Bitchx running, just close your terminal and Bitchx will still be running.

To reattach to it, log back into your host running Bitchx and type screen -r

You can do it on local machines also not just while you are ssh'd in. Though this is the only method i have used.