Please, I need help. I need a code to display
" Benn Franklin is logged on to terminal pts/13 and has been for 1 hour(s) and 17 minute(s)". I know how to get user's name and terminal but I don't know how to get how long the user has been on (will not exceed 24 hours)

NOTE: the system displays time using a 24-hour military style clock format.

Is this for a homework assignment for school? I hope it's not. You might try adapting the instructions that Google found when I searched, expecting to find something simpler.

echo '" Benn Franklin is logged on to terminal pts/13 and has been for 1 hour(s) and 17 minute(s)"'
will do that.

2 members found this post helpful.

Welcome to LQ. BUT please read this (my favorite 'How To'):
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ml#post5669556

A web-search of your question would have been more efficient and faster:
linux command how long user has been logged in

Here's a sample result, in a book I liked.

Hi infoobayo and welcome to LQ.

As some of my fellow members have asked or implied, "What have you tried?"

You're asking for code, a handout. We are all volunteers, including yourself.

What code do you know? Are you thinking to use a script or a compiled program? Do you have any idea how to start a script at all? If you wrote a script, are you familiar with what you need to accomplish in order to be able to run the script?

Homework questions are fine on LQ, if you do identify that you are working on one and also do not post the question verbatim. Further, if it is homework, you really should be attempting this on your own and sharing your thoughts about it, as well as how close or far you are to any possible answer. This is very fundamental stuff, and if you are so very far from any possible solution, you need help and should seek it from your instructor. If this is for work or self exploration, we fully understand this, and our intentions are that you learn these fundamental things correctly so that you do not end up asking for a code handout as your next question, but instead have a problem where you are able to demonstrate your initial efforts and can possibly also help other future members with problems similar to ones which you do know the answer.

/var/log/auth.log has some of that information. Although root:adm in debian.

finger command:
ARCHIVED: In Unix, what is the finger command?
https://kb.iu.edu/d/aasp