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 ] [-adiox] [ -f file ] [name...]  [tty...]                                             
       lastb [-R] [-num] [ -n num ] [ -f file ] [-adiox] [name...]  [tty...]                                            
                                                                                                                        
DESCRIPTION                                                                                                             
       Last  searches  back  through the file /var/log/wtmp (or the file designated by the -f flag) and dis             
       plays 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 signal 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                                                                                                                 
       -num   This is a count telling last how many lines to show.                                                      
                                                                                                                        
       -n num The same.                                                                                                 
                                                                                                                        
       -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.                                       
                                                                                                                        
       -i     This  option  is like -d in that it displays the IP number of the remote host, but it displays            
              the IP number in numbers-and-dots notation.                                                               
                                                                                                                        
       -o     Read an old-type wtmp file (written by linux-libc5 applications).                                         
                                                                                                                        
       -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 cre
       ated with a simple touch(1) command (for example, touch /var/log/wtmp).

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

AUTHOR
       Miquel van Smoorenburg, miquels@cistron.nl

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

                           Jul 29, 1999                         1

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