UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Ignoring current sessions, and just displaying last time user logged in:

Code:

last $1 | grep -v "still logged in" | head -1

In general this is better achieved by keeping records in the user's home directory. This is because many administrators maintain the "wtmp" file (used by "last") to conserve disc space ... and if they don't maintain the file a "last" command on a "wtmp" file which is more than a year old can be misleading.

Better use

Code:

last -w

if you need the full user name.

What OS are you using, and what makes you believe you know better than methyl or myself? Not mentioning you are going off topic (read again the very first post!)...

-w is non UNIX standard... (nor did I find in standard linux, HP-UX, or open solaris, or MacOSX (up to 10.5.6)) so unless the thread owner states what OS he is using, the rules here is to stick to pure standard UNIX solutions, this is not the first time you go on and on on pointless argument so please stop unless you are sure to add a real plus here.

in my ubuntu 11.10

Code:

last

doesn't return full user name and only

Code:

last -w

did.
Sorry!!

Code:

 
last $1 | awk '!/still logged in/{print $1 "is not online and last logged in " $5 " " $6 " " $9" " $10;exit}'