Pls explain the output of who -u command in RHEL 5.6

techie_san778 · 03-18-2013, 02:32 PM

Hello Friends,

I am running RHEL 5.6.
When I issue the $ who -u command from a non-root user, I get the following output :
san :0 2013-03-18 17:47 ? 4486
san pts/1 2013-03-18 18:43 00:26 6491
san pts/2 2013-03-18 19:44 . 8298 (:0.0)
1. Can someone explain the meaning of ? and
:0 in the 1st line of the output ??
2. With whom the process 4486 is associated,
just as 6491 is associated with pts/1?

John VV · 03-18-2013, 03:10 PM

did you read the manual page for "who" ?

Code:

man who

techie_san778 · 03-19-2013, 01:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by John VV

did you read the manual page for "who" ?

Code:

man who

of course, i have. Didn't find the info that i needed.

subho46@gmail.com · 03-19-2013, 05:16 AM

who - show who is logged on.

-u, --users : list users logged in

jpollard · 03-20-2013, 04:00 PM

The ":0" is in the column identifying the terminal. :0 is a GUI login, so there is no real terminal.

The "?" is a null string, usually occurs when the user logs in without a terminal (ssh also does this with commands like "ssh remotehost ls" to take a quick ls of the users home directory on the remote host - no terminal in use...)

The login name "san" appears to be assigned to process 4486...

You can always cross check things by using the ps utility to look at the process list...

techie_san778 · 03-21-2013, 08:27 AM

Thanks jpollard !!
That solved my doubt.. Thanks again!!