w output

[Dave Bunting]

can anybody elaborate on what w output headers means?
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User tty login@ idle JCPU PCPU what
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Thanks...

[Mary Ann Lipa · Accepted solution]

The remainder of w's output pertains to each logged in user (those connected to a
terminal-type connection using telnet, or directly to a serial port). Information listed is:

USER: Their UNIX login, or the first eight characters of it anyway
TTY: How they are connected, a pts/? for telnets, or the serial port number
FROM: Where the network connection is from
LOGIN@: When they logged in, hour and minute, or which day if they've
been connected that long
IDLE: How long it's been since they typed anything
JCPU: The amount of CPU time consumed by all their active processes
PCPU: The amount of CPU time consumed by the current process
WHAT: Name of the current process.

If someone is logged in and running something that is consuming lots of CPU time, it may be
revealed in the JCPU or PCPU columns. Since these are cummulative, a process that
doesn't use too much time but has been running for a long time, will report a fairly high
number.