Chapter 7. What you need to know about everyone else
UNIX is a multiuser system; you can find out what other users are doing.
On a typical UNIX system, many users will all be sharing the same machine. Occasionally you might want to find out some very basic information. Is a coworker logged in yet? Has he or she read the email you sent late last night? If users never log out, how do you know when they come in to work in the morning? You can find out quite a lot about the other users and about the system as a whole, without any special permissions.
Finding people
Sometimes, you just want to know if someone is in the office or if they’re at some conference for the week. Some people set up their email and voice mail so that anyone who tries to contact them will get this kind of information. Other people leave you guessing.
Arsenio Santos
This may sound like snooping. And technically it is. But it’s legitimate snooping—sort of the equivalent of looking at who your roommates got mail from, without actually opening the envelopes.
By looking at what others are doing, you can also get a better sense of the system as a whole. This chapter explains:
How to find out who’s logged in, and what they’re doing
How to learn someone’s login name
How to learn who is on a mail alias
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