Re: 'who' lists a non-existent user

[Bob Proulx]

address@hidden wrote:
>   On a GNU/linux under Red Hat 9, with coreutils-4.5.3-19, 'who' lists
> a user who is no longer logged in :
>[...]
>   I am sending this report to the addres found in the man page for 'who' ;
> if it is not the appropriate address, please let me know.

I have seen that problem before too.  It appears to occur when the
processes associated with a terminal are killed in a way that no
update of the /var/run/utmp file can be made.  At that time the system
leaves information dangling there.

The way utmp works is that when a user logs in an entry is made.  When
a user logs out the entry removed.  If something disrupts that process
causing the "removes" to not equal the "adds" then the system will
never deduce this and correct it.  The who program simply prints out
the information from the utmp file.  So whatever information it
contains is what is printed.  The who program really can't do anything
more than this.

If you log in again and again and walk up through the devices an entry
that you have logged into that tty or pty device will be made and will
then clean out the old entry.  Then when you log out it will be
removed.  By that method you can clean up dangling entries.  (Although
I read in your message now that this is not working for you.)

Bob