NC State Computing
Center

Finding out about other users

The Unity realm allows you to find out information about other users in the system; two commands come to mind, zwho and whois.


The zwho command shows who is logged on to the Eos/Unity system, and lists what machines the users are on.

	unity% zwho [return] 
	Currently active Eos users as of 10:00 on 10/02:
	aamatya     Azal Amatya shop1.bae.ncsu.edu  Oct 2 09:28
	aasalati    Alfred August Salintino n00013-103sul.unity.ncsu.edOct 2 07:49
	abhanda	    Anjana Bhandari n00033-104hlb.unity.ncsu.ed Oct 2 08:48
	acthienp    Allen Charles Thienpont n00017-103sul.unity.ncsu.edOct 2 09:29
	etc...
The whois command gives us a directory listing of a specific user, or of several users, if we are unsure of their name. You simply give the command whois lastname, where last name is replaced by the last name of the user, or use the format last name, first name. The whois command is not dependent on that user being logged onto the system; it is an electronic directory.

	unity% whois nicholos [return] 
	Name : Nicholos, Harilaos M.
	Campus address : 207-E Hillsborough Bldg., Box 7109
	Campus phone : 5-5497 5-3787
	Department : Comp. Ctr.
	Position : Systems Programmer II
	E-mail address : harry_nicholos.ncsu.edu
If you know their first name, it may help to provide that information, since many people have the same last name. You may want to try a whois on smith, john:
	unity%whois smith, john[return]
	Smith John B. Phys. Plant-Paint Shop
	Smith John David History
	SMITH JOHN JOSEPH PBS
	SMITH JOHN LEE Computer Engineering
	Smith Johnny L. Housing & Res. Life
If you decide that you want to see information for John B. Smith, you would enter "smith, john b."; notice the name is placed in quotes.

 
	unity% whois "smith, john b." [return] 
	Name: Smith, John B. 
	Campus address: Box 7219 
	Campus phone; 5-2181 
	Department: Phys. Plant-Paint Shop 
	Position: Sign Painter 

Go on to next section, The add command

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