---
name: "who"
section: "1"
platform: "openbsd"
package: "man"
version: "8.0-current-20261101"
release: "OpenBSD 8.0-current (2026-11-01)"
platforms: ["linux", "freebsd", "openbsd", "macos"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/who"
---

# who(1)

display who is logged in

## NAME

**who** – display who is logged in

## SYNOPSIS

**who** \[**-HmqTu**\] \[*file*\]

**who** **am** **i**

## DESCRIPTION

The **who** utility displays a list of all users currently logged on, showing for each user the login name, tty name, the date and time of login, and hostname if not local.

The options are as follows:

- **-H**

  Write column headings above the regular output.

- **-m**

  Only print information about the current terminal. This is the POSIX way of saying **who** **am** **i**.

- **-q**

  (Quick.) List only the names and the number of users currently logged on. When this option is used, all other options are ignored.

- **-T**

  Print a character after the user name indicating the state of the terminal line: ‘+’ if the terminal is writable; ‘-’ if it is not; and ‘?’ if a bad line is encountered.

- **-u**

  Print the idle time for each user.

- **am** **i**

  Returns the invoker's real user name.

- *file*

  By default, **who** gathers information from the file */var/run/utmp*. An alternate *file* may be specified which is usually */var/log/wtmp* (or */var/log/wtmp.\[0-6\]* depending on site policy as *wtmp* can grow quite large and daily versions may or may not be kept around after compression by [ac(8)](/ac/8.md)). The *wtmp* file contains a record of every login, logout, crash, shutdown and date change since *wtmp* was last truncated or created.

If */var/log/wtmp* is being used as the file, the user name may be empty or one of the special characters ‘\|’, ‘}’, and ‘~’. Logouts produce an output line without any user name. For more information on the special characters, see [utmp(5)](/utmp/5.md).

## FILES

- */var/run/utmp*

  - */var/log/wtmp*

  - */var/log/wtmp.\[0-6\]*

  ## EXIT STATUS

The **who** utility exits 0 on success, and \>0 if an error occurs.

## SEE ALSO

[last(1)](/last/1.md), [mesg(1)](/mesg/1.md), [users(1)](/users/1.md), [w(1)](/w/1.md), [getuid(2)](/getuid/2.md), [utmp(5)](/utmp/5.md)

## STANDARDS

The **who** utility is compliant with the IEEE Std 1003.1-2008 (“POSIX.1”) specification.

The flags \[**-abdHlpqrst**\] are marked by IEEE Std 1003.1-2008 (“POSIX.1”) as being an X/Open System Interfaces option. Of these, \[**-abdlprst**\] are not supported by this implementation of **who**.

## HISTORY

A **who** utility appeared in Version 1 AT&T UNIX.