Multiple users logged in

Question

I'm looking at top and see that there are two users. Using who gives the following:

           system boot  2014-12-22 14:15
           run-level 2  2014-12-22 14:15
LOGIN      tty4         2014-12-22 14:15               996 id=4
LOGIN      tty5         2014-12-22 14:15              1001 id=5
LOGIN      tty2         2014-12-22 14:15              1009 id=2
LOGIN      tty3         2014-12-22 14:15              1010 id=3
LOGIN      tty6         2014-12-22 14:15              1014 id=6
LOGIN      tty1         2014-12-22 14:16              3508 id=1
user ?     :0           2014-12-22 14:17   ?          3576 (:0)
user     + pts/0        2014-12-23 11:49   .         18392 (:0)
           pts/8        2014-12-23 11:49                 0 id=/8    term=0 exit=0

Why are there two users? I know that the lower user is the one from my terminal (pts). How about the one above that? It's not even a tty, what is that ":0" supposed to signify?

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 23 '14 at 17:05

3

:0 is the X11 display, if you have several screens or displays it will list them :0,:1, :2, etc...

:0 is your desktop.

answered Dec 23 '14 at 17:05

Kriev

71

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 23 '14 at 17:06

0

:0 means that the user is logged through the X server. Thus there are two users because one is logged via terminal and other in the X server (GUI).

answered Dec 23 '14 at 17:06

Vinicius Tinti

426
2
4

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:37

0

This question has been answered here. To summarize it:

First, there are no "two users" - there is one, who is logged in multiple times.

And, as muru said, :0 normally refers to a log in via some graphical interface. Using "w" will tell you which interface logging into your system.

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:37

Community

1

answered Dec 23 '14 at 17:08

cleros

134

Multiple users logged in

3 Answers3