lastlog

[eXtremist]

A couple of days ago, I could type 'lastlog' and see when the last time anyone logged into my system was. Today, when I do that, it only lists one user, 'greg'. I only have 5 users on the system, so 4 of them aren't showing. Anyone know how this may have happened?

[optech]

you were logged in as root the first time, and as greg the second time

[eXtremist]

I wish it were that simple..

Actually, when I'm logged in as a user, I can't run 'lastlog'.. 'lastlog' is only executable by root. So, I was root both times.

I just checked to see if you were right, and no, only one user appears when I'm logged in as root. And the missing user accounts are still active, as I can log in to them no problem.

[bdg1983]

Check to see if /var/log/lastlog exists and the date and time stamp. Something could be wrong with that file and it's not writable. It should be rw-r--r--.

[eXtremist]

The file is only -rw------- .. but I haven't changed the permissions on that file at all.. How could it have possibly been changed..?

I don't think it was, because for different distros that file has different permissions. ie, when I was using redhat, any user could exec lastlog. With Mandrake only root may.

[bdg1983]

I just meant to verify the file does exist and it is writable.