UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

I'm trying to write a grep command that will be good for the current user of the command but it doesn't work on my server with bash shell. On the server with tcsh I used:
last | grep "$user" and the current user could see how many times they logged on this month. On the other server it doesn't work and I think it's because of the shell. I've tried many variations of this but I'm toasted.

Try this :

Code:

$ last | grep $USER

ce9888, thanks but that isn't doing it.
While it does work correctly on server #1:
/home/sphillips%last | grep $USER | wc -l
12
It does not work on server #2:
[sphillip~]$ last | grep $USER | wc -l
0
[sphillip~]$ last | grep sphillip | wc -l
58
[sphillip~]$
I'm confused since I've tried several combination with and without quots.

Try to find out what shell variable is containing the username with this command:

Code:

$ env | grep -i user

It should give you a list of shell variables, find which one representing the username and use it.

ce9888, again, thanks.
Its more frustration than anything. I don't know how one is expected to learn this stuff if it works sometimes in some places under certain circumstances. Although it works on server #1 so maybe I should just deep six server #2.
I do appreciate your assistance, keeps me hoping.

[sphillip~]$ env | grep -i user
USER=sphillips7738
[sphillip~]$ last | grep sphillip | wc -l
59
[sphillip~]$ last | grep USER | wc -l
0
[sphillip~]$

it should works with :

Code:

[sphillip~]$ last | grep $USER | wc -l

No, I tried that too, my second post. It works just fine on the FreeBSD box, I don't know what the issue is but thanks for your efforts ce9888.