last.1 (2010 09)

l
last(1) last(1)
NAME
last, lastb - indicate last logins of users and ttys
SYNOPSIS
/usr/bin/last
[ -R ][-number ][-x][-X
][-f file ][name ... ] [ tty ... ]
/usr/bin/lastb
[ -R ][-number ][-x][
-X][-f file ][name ... ] [ tty ... ]
DESCRIPTION
The
last command searches backwards through the file
/var/adm/wtmps (which contains a record of
all logins and logouts) for information about a user, a tty, or any group of users and ttys. Arguments
specify names of users or ttys of interest. The names of ttys can be given fully or abbreviated. For exam-
ple,
last 0 is the same as last tty0
. If multiple arguments are given, the information that applies
to any of the arguments is printed. For example,
last root console lists all of root’s sessions as
well as all sessions on the console terminal. The
last command prints the sessions of the specified users
and ttys, most recent first, indicating when the session began, the duration of the session, and the tty on
which the session took place.
last indicates if the session is still in progress or if it was cut short by a
reboot.
The pseudo-user
reboot logs each time the system reboots. Thus,
last reboot is a useful command
for evaluating the relative time between system reboots.
If
last is interrupted, it indicates how far the search has progressed in wtmp. If interrupted by a quit
signal (generated by a Ctrl-\), last indicates how far the search has progressed, then continues the
search.
The
lastb command searches backwards through the database file /var/adm/btmps
to display bad
login information. Access to
/var/adm/btmps
should be restricted to users with appropriate privileges
(owned by and readable only by
root) because it may contain password information.
Options
The
last and lastb commands recognize the following options and arguments:
(none) If no arguments are specified,
last prints a record of all logins and logouts in reverse
order, most recent first.
-R When used with last and lastb, -R displays the user’s host name as it is stored in the
files /var/adm/wtmps and
/var/adm/btmps, respectively. The host name is
displayed between the tty name and the user’s login time.
-number Limits the report to number of lines.
-f file Use file as the name of the accounting file instead of /var/adm/wtmp
or
/var/adm/btmp.
-X Use file as the name of the accounting database instead of /var/adm/wtmps
. This
option should be used along with the
-f file option.
-x Display the fields in long format if this flag is used along with the -X flag. Without the
-X flag, normal output is displayed.
AUTHOR
last was developed by the University of California, Berkeley and HP.
FILES
/var/adm/btmp Bad login database
/var/adm/wtmp Login database
/var/adm/wtmps New login database
/var/adm/btmps New bad login database
SEE ALSO
login(1), utmp(4), wtmps(4).
HP-UX 11i Version 3: September 2010 − 1 − Hewlett-Packard Company 1