NAME

       last, lastb - show a listing of last logged in users

SYNOPSIS

       last [options] [username...] [tty...]
       lastb [options] [username...] [tty...]

DESCRIPTION

       last  searches  back  through  the  /var/log/wtmp  file  (or the file designated by the -f
       option) and displays a list of all users logged in (and out) since that file was  created.
       One  or  more  usernames  and/or  ttys can be given, in which case last will show only the
       entries matching those arguments.  Names of ttys can be abbreviated, thus last  0  is  the
       same as last tty0.

       When  catching  a  SIGINT  signal (generated by the interrupt key, usually control-C) or a
       SIGQUIT signal, 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 the reboots since the log file was created.

       lastb is the same as last, except that by default it shows  a  log  of  the  /var/log/btmp
       file, which contains all the bad login attempts.

OPTIONS

       -a, --hostlast
              Display  the  hostname  in  the  last column.  Useful in combination with the --dns
              option.

       -d, --dns
              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.

       -f, --file file
              Tell  last  to use a specific file instead of /var/log/wtmp.  The --file option can
              be given multiple times, and all of the specified files will be processed.

       -F, --fulltimes
              Print full login and logout times and dates.

       -i, --ip
              Like --dns , but displays the host's IP number instead of the name.

       -number
       -n, --limit number
              Tell last how many lines to show.

       -p, --present time
              Display the users who were present at the specified time.  This is like  using  the
              options --since and --until together with the same time.

       -R, --nohostname
              Suppresses the display of the hostname field.

       -s, --since time
              Display  the  state  of  logins since the specified time.  This is useful, e.g., to
              easily determine who was logged in at a  particular  time.   The  option  is  often
              combined with --until.

       -t, --until time
              Display the state of logins until the specified time.

       --time-format format
              Define  the  output timestamp format to be one of notime, short, full, or iso.  The
              notime variant will not print any timestamps at all, short is the default, and full
              is  the same as the --fulltimes option.  The iso variant will display the timestamp
              in ISO-8601 format.  The  ISO  format  contains  timezone  information,  making  it
              preferable when printouts are investigated outside of the system.

       -w, --fullnames
              Display full user names and domain names in the output.

       -x, --system
              Display the system shutdown entries and run level changes.

TIME FORMATS

       The options that take the time argument understand the following formats:

       YYYYMMDDhhmmss
       YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss
       YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm      (seconds will be set to 00)
       YYYY-MM-DD            (time will be set to 00:00:00)
       hh:mm:ss              (date will be set to today)
       hh:mm                 (date will be set to today, seconds to 00)
       now
       yesterday             (time is set to 00:00:00)
       today                 (time is set to 00:00:00)
       tomorrow              (time is set to 00:00:00)
       +5min
       -5days

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  created  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⟩

AVAILABILITY

       The last command is part of the util-linux package and  is  available  from  Linux  Kernel
       Archive ⟨ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/⟩.

SEE ALSO

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