The ac command is a utility for displaying statistics about user activity on a Linux system. It reads data from the system’s accounting files and displays a summary of information about users’ login and logout times, the amount of time they spent logged in, and the number of processes they ran.
You can also use the -f option to specify the name of the accounting file to read data from. By default, ac reads data from the system’s default accounting file, which is usually located at /var/account/pacct.
For more information about the ac command and a complete list of options, you can refer to the man page by typing “man ac” at the command prompt.
If you encounter the below error while running the ac command:
ac: command not found
you may try installing the below package as per your choice of distribution:
| OS Distribution | Command |
|---|---|
| Debian | apt-get install acct |
| Ubuntu | apt-get install acct |
| Alpine | apk add acct |
| Kali Linux | apt-get install acct |
| CentOS | yum install acct |
| Fedora | dnf install acct |
| Raspbian | apt-get install acct |
ac Command Examples
1. Print how long the current user has been connected in hours:
# ac
2. Print how long users have been connected in hours:
# ac --individual-totals
3. Print how long a particular user has been connected in hours:
# ac --individual-totals {{username}}
4. Print how long a particular user has been connected in hours per day (with total):
# ac --daily-totals --individual-totals {{username}}
5. Also display additional details:
# ac --compatibility