Why are there two users with same name?

Question

When I execute users command, it output two users with same name. Why are there two users? I'm pretty sure that I created just one user.

i.e

username@Computer:~$ users

gives following output

username username

@JohnRambo he just cut out the actual username and computer name... — Alvar, Feb 04 '13 at 06:37

score 14 · Answer 1 · edited Feb 04 '13 at 07:43

14

The users command prints the user names of users currently logged in to the current host, not the list of users you created on your computer.

In your case, it returns the same user name twice because you are probably logged in twice.

You can check by using the who command (show who is logged on):

felix@computer:~$ who
felix    pts/0        2013-02-04 06:40 (:0.0)
felix    pts/5        2013-02-04 06:42 (:0.0)
felix@computer:~$ users
felix felix

See the manual pages for more information (man 1 users).

edited Feb 04 '13 at 07:43

gertvdijk

67,947

answered Feb 04 '13 at 05:53

felix

141

I didn't logged in twice, it is by default. Why there are two users logged in anyway? – TheKojuEffect Feb 04 '13 at 08:05
3

Maybe because you have two open terminals? – felix Feb 04 '13 at 08:20
3

Run users in aterminal. Now open another terminal run it again (users). You can see incerase in number. – totti Feb 04 '13 at 10:16

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 18 '23 at 11:33

The users command prints the user names of users currently logged in to the current host, not the list of users you created on your computer.

This not limited to users signed in form graphical sign in screen, but also those logins via sudo.

You can check that by running users, then logging in to another shell session with sudo running sudo -su <user_name> or even just sudo if you want root user. Run users from here or any other session, you could see another user entry.

One thing to note, is that the list contains users that have run sudo, not the users sudo switched to. For example,

if you run users as non-root and got "someuser someuser"
Then run sudo sh to get shell as root.
If you test here by running users, you will get "<user_you_ran_sudo from> someuser someuser"
Then run either another sudo sh or sudo -s -u <user_name>
You will get additional entry for "root".

This is the case in my Linux version 6.0.0-kali6-amd64.

This is a repeat of the existing answer. – David Mar 25 '23 at 13:39 — David, Mar 25 '23 at 13:39

Why are there two users with same name?

2 Answers2