3 lastcomm

lastcomm prints out information about previously executed commands. If no arguments are specified, lastcomm will print info about all of the commands in the acct file (the record file). If called with a command name, user name, or tty name, only records containing those items will be displayed. For example, to find out which users used command ‘a.out’ and which users were logged into ‘tty0’, type:

lastcomm a.out tty0

This will print any entry for which ‘a.out’ or ‘tty0’ matches in any of the record’s fields (command, name, or tty). If you want to find only items that match ALL of the arguments on the command line, you must use the ’–strict-match’ option. For example, to list all of the executions of command ‘a.out’ by user ‘root’ on terminal ‘tty0’, type:

lastcomm --strict-match a.out root tty0

The order of the arguments is not important.

For each entry the following information is printed:

• command name of the process
• flags, as recorded by the system accounting routines:
  • - S command executed by super-user
  • - F command executed after a fork but without a following exec
  • - C command run in PDP-11 compatibility mode (VAX only)
  • - D command terminated with the generation of a core file
  • - X command was terminated with the signal SIGTERM
• the name of the user who ran the process
• time the process started

3.1 Flags

This program implements the features of regular u*x lastcomm with a few extra flags. When lastcomm is invoked without arguments, the output looks like this:

nslookup         jberman  ttypb      0.03 secs Tue Feb 16 19:23
comsat           root     __         0.03 secs Tue Feb 16 19:19
uptime           ctilburg __         0.11 secs Tue Feb 16 19:23
sh          F    ctilburg __         0.02 secs Tue Feb 16 19:23
sleep            ctilburg __         0.02 secs Tue Feb 16 19:22
ls               noel     ttyp4      0.19 secs Tue Feb 16 19:23

--strict-match

Print only entries that match all of the arguments on the command line.

--user name

List records for user with name. This is useful if you’re trying to match a username that happens to be the same as a command (e.g., ed).

--command name

List records for command name.

--tty name

List records for tty name.

-f filename

--file filename

Read from the file filename instead of the system’s acct file.

--ahz hz

Use this flag to tell the program what AHZ should be (in hertz). This option is useful if you are trying to view an acct file created on another machine which has the same byte order and file format as your current machine, but has a different value for AHZ.

-p

--show-paging

Print paging statistics

--debug

Print verbose internal information.

--version

Print lastcomm’s version number.

--help

Print lastcomm’s usage string and default locations of system files to standard output.