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who Command Cheat Sheet

who displays information about users who are currently logged in.


Synopsis

who [OPTION]... [ FILE | ARG1 ARG2 ]

Basic Usage

who
# Output lines:
# faruk    tty1         2025-12-16 09:00 (:0)
# root     pts/0        2025-12-16 10:30 (192.168.1.5)

Options

Show All Information (-a)

Equivalent to -b -d --login -p -r -t -T -u.

who -a

Show Boot Time (-b)

Show the time of last system boot.

who -b
# Output:
#          system boot  2025-12-16 08:00

Show Dead Processes (-d)

Print dead processes (zombies/terminated sessions).

who -d

Add Headers (-H)

Print column headers.

who -H
# Output:
# NAME     LINE         TIME             COMMENT
# faruk    tty1         2025-12-16 09:00 (:0)

Count Users (-q)

Quick count of total users.

who -q
# Output:
# faruk root
# # users=2

Show Runlevel (-r)

who -r
# Output:
#          run-level 5  2025-12-16 08:00

Notes

  • Source: Reads /var/run/utmp.
  • "Am I" Argument: who am i (with spaces) acts like who -m, showing only the hostname and user associated with the standard input (the current terminal).
    who am i