last.1

.\" Man page by Dirk Eddelbuettel
.TH LAST 1 "1997 August 19"
.SH NAME
last \- list logins on the system
.SH SYNOPSIS
.hy 0
.na
.TP
.B last 
[ 
.BI \- "num"
|
.BI \-n " num"
|
.BI \-\-lines " num"
]
.br
[
.BI \-f " filename"
|
.BI \-\-file " filename"
] 
.br
[
.I people ...
] 
[
.I ttys ...
] 
.br
[
.B \-\-complain
]
[
.B \-\-no-truncate-ftp-entries
]
.br
[
.B \-x
|
.B \-\-more-records
]
[
.B \-a
|
.B \-\-all-records
]
.br
[
.B \-\-tw-leniency
.I num
]
[
.B \-\-tw-suspicious
.I num
]
.br
[
.B \-i
|
.B \-\-ip-address
]
[
.B \-\-debug
]
[
.B \-w
|
.B \-\-wide
]
.br
[
.B \-s
|
.B \-\-print-seconds
]
[
.B \-y
|
.B \-\-print-year
]
.br
[
.B \-V
|
.B \-\-version
]
[
.B \-h
|
.B \-\-help
]
.hy 1
.ad b
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B last
looks through the file 
.I wtmp
(which records all logins/logouts) and
prints information about connect times of users. Records are printed from
most recent to least recent.  Records can be specified by tty and username.
tty names can be abbreviated: 
.ce
.BR last " 0" 
.ce 0
is equivalent to 
.ce
.BR last " tty0."
.ce 0
.LP
Multiple arguments can be specified: 
.ce
.BR last " root console"
.ce 0
will print all of the entries for the user 
.I root 
and all entries logged in on the 
.I console
tty.
.LP
The special users 
.IR reboot " and " shutdown 
log in when the system reboots or
(surprise) shuts down.  
.ce
.BR last " reboot" 
.ce 0
will produce a record of reboot times.
.LP
If 
.B last 
is interrupted by a quit signal, it prints out how far its search
in the 
.I wtmp
file had reached and then quits.
.SH OPTIONS
.PD 0
.TP
.BI \-n " num, " \-\-lines " num "
Limit the number of lines that 
.B last 
outputs.  This is different from u*x
.B last, 
which lets you specify the number right after a dash.
.TP
.BI \-f " filename, " \-\-file " filename"
Read from the file 
.I filename
instead of the system's 
.I wtmp
file.
.TP
.B \-\-complain
When the 
.I wtmp
file has a problem (a time-warp, missing record, or
whatever), print out an appropriate error.
.TP
.BI \-\-tw-leniency " num"
Set the time warp leniency to 
.I num 
seconds.  Records in 
.I wtmp
files might be slightly out of order (most notably when two logins
occur within a one-second period - the second one gets written first).
By default, this value is set to 60.  If the program notices this
problem, time is not assigned to users unless the
.B \-\-timewarps
flag is used.
.TP
.BI \-\-tw-suspicious " num"
Set the time warp suspicious value to 
.I num 
seconds.  If two records in the
.I wtmp
file are farther than this number of seconds apart, there is a problem
with the
.I wtmp
file (or your machine hasn't been used in a year).  If the program
notices this problem, time is not assigned to users unless the
.B \-\-timewarps
flag is used.
.TP 
.B \-\-no-truncate-ftp-entries
When printing out the information, don't chop the number part off of 
`ftp'XXXX entries.
.TP 
.B \-x, \-\-more-records
Print out run level changes, shutdowns, and time changes in addition to
the normal records.
.TP 
.B \-a, \-\-all-records
Print out all records in the
.I wtmp
file.
.TP
.B \-i, \-\-ip-address
Some machines store the IP address of a connection in a utmp record.
Enabling this option makes
.B last
print the IP address instead of
the hostname.
.TP
.B \-w, \-\-wide
By default,
.B last
tries to print each entry within in 80 columns.  Use this option to
instruct
.B last
to print out the fields in the
.I wtmp
file with full field widths.
.TP
.B \-\-debug
Print verbose internal information.
.TP
.B \-s, \-\-print-seconds
Print seconds when displaying dates.
.TP
.B \-y, \-\-print-year
Print year when displaying dates.
.TP
.B \-V, \-\-version
Print 
.B last's 
version number.
.TP
.B \-h, \-\-help
Prints the usage string and default locations of system files to
standard output and exits.
.SH FILES
.I wtmp
.RS
The system wide login record file. See
.BR wtmp (5)
for further details.
.SH AUTHOR
The GNU accounting utilities were written by Noel Cragg
<noel@gnu.ai.mit.edu>. The man page was added by Dirk Eddelbuettel
<edd@qed.econ.queensu.ca>.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.BR who (1),
.BR wtmp (5)