Multi-User

Who's on Your Computer?

To find out what users (including yourself) are currently logged in to your UNIX computer. 
who
root    console    09:50:34 24 Jul 1995
rob     vt01       13:14:45 21 Jul 1995
ruby    vt02       16:34:23 21 Jul 1995
There is a line entry for each terminal. Each window on a workstation screen is regarded as a separate terminal. You can find out who is logged in to a particular terminal by typing: 
who am i
rob     vt01       13:14:45 21 Jul 1995
You get just the line pertaining to the terminal concerned. You can get a more detailed report by using: 
finger
finger
Login   Name            TTY     Idle    When        Location
root    Admin           con     1:11    Tue 20:16   lab
rob     R J Morton      vt      1:11    Mon 15:19   study
ruby    R E E Morton    vt      1:35    Tue 16:47   conf rm
You can also finger an individual as follows: 
finger lisa
finger lisa
Login name: lisa        In real life: Miss E R Morton
Directory:  /usr/lisa   Shell: /bin/sh
On since 16:36 Tue 21 Jul 1995 on vt03 1 hour 27 minutes Idle Time
Project: Working on History Essay: Science in 17th Century England
Plan: To get degree in English with History and then go into 
      investigative journalism.
Project text is kept in a file called .project and the Plan text is kept in a file called .plan file. Both these files are kept in the user's home directory and are hidden files.

Who's on The Network

You can also find out who is on other computers on the network using finger as follows:

finger @tracy

where tracy is another computer on your network. You can also ask for details of individuals currently logged on to other computers:

finger jim@sharon

You can also use the rwho command. This compiles a list of everybody who is currently logged in throughout the whole network.

Quick Messages

You can send a short one-way message to another user as follows: 
write jim
Phone me on 651697. Rob
Ctrl-D
Jim receives the following message on his screen: 
Message from rob on eustace (ttyp1) [10:15 Wed 6 Jan 1995]
Phone me on 651697. Rob
<EOT>
Use finger to see which of your target's windows is currently active. Then send the message to that window:

write jim ttyp1

You can make you conversation two-way by substituting talk for write. The other user first gets the following message: 

Message from Talk_Daemon@sharon at 10:15
talk: connection requested by rob@eustace
talk: respond with: talk rob@eustace

Park whatever program you are in with Ctrl-Z. Then type the response. The talk program then splits the screen into two separate send and receive windows.

To broadcast a message to every other user on your computer, type: 

wall
Fire! Everybody out of the building immediately.
Ctrl-D
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