Dump utmp and wtmp logs

Dump utmp and wtmp logs

Like pacct, you can also dump the contents of the utmp and wtmp files. Both these files provide login records for the host. This information may be critical, especially if applications rely on the proper output of these files to function.

Being able to analyze the records gives you the power to examine your systems in and out. Furthermore, it may help you diagnose problems with logins, for example, via VNC or ssh, non-console and console login attempts, and more.

You can dump the logs using the dump-utmp utility. There is no dump-wtmp utility; the former works for both.

You can also do the following:

dump-utmp /var/log/wtmp

Here’s what the sample file looks like: