LAST,LASTB(1)                                  Linux System Administrator's Manual                                 LAST,LASTB(1)



NAME
       last, lastb - show listing of last logged in users

SYNOPSIS
       last [-R] [-num] [ -n num ] [-adFiowx] [ -f file ] [ -t YYYYMMDDHHMMSS ] [name...]  [tty...]
       lastb [-R] [-num] [ -n num ] [ -f file ] [-adFiowx] [name...]  [tty...]

DESCRIPTION
       Last  searches  back  through  the  file /var/log/wtmp (or the file designated by the -f flag) and displays a list of all
       users logged in (and out) since that file was created.  Names of users and tty's can be given, in which  case  last  will
       show only those entries matching the arguments.  Names of ttys can be abbreviated, thus last 0 is the same as last tty0.

       When  last  catches a SIGINT signal (generated by the interrupt key, usually control-C) or a SIGQUIT signal (generated by
       the quit key, usually control-\), last will show how far it has searched through the file; in the case of the SIGINT sig-
       nal last will then terminate.

       The  pseudo  user reboot logs in each time the system is rebooted.  Thus last reboot will show a log of all reboots since
       the log file was created.

       Lastb is the same as last, except that by default it shows a log of the file /var/log/btmp, which contains  all  the  bad
       login attempts.

OPTIONS
       -f file
              Tells last to use a specific file instead of /var/log/wtmp.

       -num   This is a count telling last how many lines to show.

       -n num The same.

       -t YYYYMMDDHHMMSS
              Display the state of logins as of the specified time.  This is useful, e.g., to determine easily who was logged in
              at a particular time -- specify that time with -t and look for "still logged in".

       -f file
              Specifies a file to search other than /var/log/wtmp.

       -R     Suppresses the display of the hostname field.

       -a     Display the hostname in the last column. Useful in combination with the next flag.

       -d     For non-local logins, Linux stores not only the host name of the remote host but  its  IP  number  as  well.  This
              option translates the IP number back into a hostname.

       -F     Print full login and logout times and dates.

       -i     This option is like -d in that it displays the IP number of the remote host, but it displays the IP number in num-
              bers-and-dots notation.

       -o     Read an old-type wtmp file (written by linux-libc5 applications).

       -w     Display full user and domain names in the output.

       -x     Display the system shutdown entries and run level changes.

NOTES
       The files wtmp and btmp might not be found. The system only logs information in these files if they are present. This  is
       a  local  configuration  issue. If you want the files to be used, they can be created with a simple touch(1) command (for
       example, touch /var/log/wtmp).

FILES
       /var/log/wtmp
       /var/log/btmp

AUTHOR
       Miquel van Smoorenburg, miquelsATcistron.nl

SEE ALSO
       shutdown(8), login(1), init(8)



                                                          Jul 31, 2004                                             LAST,LASTB(1)