Shell Scripts to Find How Many Users are Logged In

Every operating system provides a feature of multiple user accounts. Linux-based operating systems have some commands or functionalities to check user accounts’ details and change them. This ability is mainly used by the admin account user that is the root user, to provide permissions and access to different users. The admin can also check how many users are currently logged in, how many are logged out, and the login time. Here in this article, we will explore all these ways and also write a shell script to complete these tasks efficiently.

Commands to get user-related information:

1. id: The id command is used to print the user and group information for the specified USER.

-a              ignore, for compatibility with other versions
-Z, --context   print only the security context of the process
-g, --group     print only the effective group ID
-G, --groups    print all group IDs
-n, --name      print a name instead of a number, for -ugG
-r, --real      print the real ID instead of the effective ID, with -ugG
-u, --user      print only the effective user ID
-z, --zero      delimit entries with NUL characters, not whitespace

This id command has produced all the user identifiers, group identifiers, and groups. If you want only a group identifier, use the below command.

id -G

2. groups: This will print the group to which the specified user belongs. If no specific username is given, it will search for the current users. Use the below command for the current user.

3. getent: This command displays entries from the databases.

-i, --no-idn            disable IDN encoding
-s, --service=CONFIG    Service configuration to be used
-?, --help              Give this help list
--usage                 Give a short usage message
-V, --version           Print program version

Let us see the version of getent program present on our system.

getent -V

4. lslogins: To see all the username and user ids. This provides a list of several features like UID, USER, LAST-LOGIN, etc.

-a, --acc-expiration      display info about passwords expiration
-c, --colon-separate      display data in a format similar to /etc/passwd
-e, --export              display in an export-able output format
-f, --failed              display data about the users' last failed logins
-G, --supp-groups         display information about groups
-g, --groups=<groups>     display users belonging to a group in <groups>
-L, --last                show info about the users' last login sessions
-l, --logins=<logins>     display only users from <logins>
-n, --newline             display each piece of information on a new line
--noheadings              don't print headings
--notruncate              don't truncate output

5. users: This command will print the usernames of logged-in to the current host.

users

This is the only user logged in currently.

6. who: To show who is logged-in. This lists the users with id and the time and date of user login.

-a, --all          same as –b, -d, --login, -p, -r, -t, -T, -u
-b, --boot         time of last system boot
-d, --dead         print dead processes
-H, --heading      print line of column headings
-l, --login        print system login processes
--lookup           attempt to canonicalize hostnames via DNS
-m                 only hostname and user associated with stdin
-p, --process      print active processes spawned by init
-q, --count        all login names and number of users logged in

7. w: w command shows the logged-in user accounts and also shows what they are doing.

-h, --no-header   do not print header
-u, --no-current  ignore current process username
-s, --short       short format
-f, --from        show remote hostname field
-o, --old-style   old style output
-i, --ip-addr     display IP address instead of hostname (if possible)

This has some more features and columns than who, to give more detailed information about users.

w

8. last or lastb: The commands last and lastb shows a listing of last logged in users

-<number>             how many lines to show
-a, --hostlast        display hostnames in the last column
-d, --dns             translate the IP number back into a hostname
-f, --file <file>     use a specific file instead of /var/log/wtmp
-F, --fulltimes       print full login and logout times and dates
-i, --ip              display IP numbers in numbers-and-dots notation
-n, --limit <number>  how many lines to show
-R, --nohostname      don't display the hostname field
-s, --since <time>    display the lines since the specified time
-t, --until <time>    display the lines until the specified time
-p, --present <time>  display who were present at the specified time

This provides all the login details of several users according to date and time.

last

9. lastlog: This will produce a report of all the recent login users. This can also create a single-user report if specified.

-b, --before DAYS              print only lastlog records older than DAYS
-C, --clear                    clear lastlog record of a user (usable only with -u)
-h, --help                     display this help message and exit
-R, --root CHROOT_DIR          directory to chroot into
-S, --set                      set lastlog record to the current time (usable only with -u)
-t, --time DAYS                print only lastlog records more recent than DAYS
-u, --user LOGIN               print lastlog record of the specified LOGIN

This tells about the latest log of the users.

lastlog

Shell Script

Now we will create a shell script using some above-mentioned commands to get user details. We are approaching the solution in a way that the user is asked for input by given suggestions. That input will be then used to check against the available cases, and then the matched case will be allowed to run.

Open gedit file:

Open any editor according to your preferences, we have used gedit editor because of its simple user interface and the color combination present.

gedit userAccounts.sh

Code:

Here in the userAccounts.sh we will write our code, and use switch cases to compare the user input. We have used commands like lslogins, who, groups, etc. which will help us to satisfy the user requirements. You could find the use of these commands more extended above. So, let us begin the script.

#!/bin/bash
#here we are going to develop a script for various options on user accounts
echo -e "\n
[ 1 ] for listing all the user accounts name \n
[ 2 ] for counting the number of logged-in user accounts  \n
[ 3 ] for listing the names of currently logged-in users\n
[ 4 ] for checking the groups to which the current user belong \n"

#Now take user input
read userInput

#Now we will use switch cases for various input operations
case $userInput in
    1)
    #syntax lslogins <option[=output field]>
    lslogins -o USER
    ;;
    2)
    #syntax who <option> <user optional>
    #grep used to filter
    who --count | grep users
    ;;
    3)
    #-q option is to count the number of users and print the logged-in users.
    # instead of -q, --count can also be used.
    # -v is used to exclude any pattern
    who -q | grep -v users
    ;;
    4)
    #syntax groups <option> [USERNAME]
    groups
    ;;
    *)
    echo -e "Please Enter Correct Input \n"
    ;;    
esac

Grant executable permissions

Executable permissions must be granted to the files to make them run or execute on the system. We could also use “777” instead of “+x” in the chmod command. Also please run the script as root to 

# chmod +x userAccounts.sh

Run the script

./userAccounts.sh

Example 1: 

./userAccounts.sh
1

Example 2: 

./userAccounts.sh
2

Example 3:

./userAccounts.sh
3

Hence, we were able to find out various login-related results using our shell script.