From: Jan Nicolai Langfeldt (janl@ifi.uio.no)
Date: 07/21/92


From: janl@ifi.uio.no (Jan Nicolai Langfeldt)
Subject: Re: problems with who and w
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1992 22:39:16 GMT


In article <1992Jul20.170722.1@mcclb0.med.nyu.edu>, ramirez@mcclb0.med.nyu.edu writes:
> I am having a problem with who and w. It is telling me that there are
> two users when there is only one. It also says under the tty entry that the
> user is connected to ttyp1. I've reset the machine and that user is still
> there. Is there anything that I can do to get it off?

This seems to be ripe for adding to the faq.

The problem comes from a earlier improper logout (crash?), that left
the /etc/[uw]tmp files unupdated. I haven't seen (can't remember) a
better solutions so I offer this one: login as root, then type 'cd
/etc;', then 'rm [uw]tmp; touch [uw]tmp', then logout. The [wu]tmp
files are now empty, and when you login again 'w' and 'who' will
report the right number of users.

Nicolai

-- 
Nicolai Langfeldt, "Bugs made while you wait"             
Internet: janl@ifi.uio.no