# AC - print statistics about users' connect time - man - [phpMan] > **TLDR:** Print statistics on how long users have been connected. > - Print how long the current user has been connected in hours: `ac` - Print how long users have been connected in hours: `ac -p` - Print how long a particular user has been connected in hours: `ac -p {{username}}` - Print how long a particular user has been connected in hours per [d]ay (with total): `ac -dp {{username}}` *Source: tldr-pages* --- [_AC_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/AC/1/markdown) General Commands Manual [_AC_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/AC/1/markdown) ## NAME ac - print statistics about users' connect time ## SYNOPSIS **ac **[ **-d **| **--daily-totals **] [ **-y **| **--print-year **] [ **-p **| **--individual-totals **] [ _people_ ] [ **-f **| **--file _**filename_ ] [ **-a **| **--all-days **] [ **--complain **] [ **--reboots **] [ **--supplants **] [ **--timewarps **] [ **--compatibility **] [ **--tw-leniency _**num_ ] [ **--tw-suspicious _**num_ ] [ **-z **| **--print-zeros **] [ **--debug **] [ **-V **| **--version **] [ **-h **| **--help **] ## DESCRIPTION **ac **prints out a report of connect time (in hours) based on the logins/logouts in the current _wtmp_ file. A total is also printed out. The accounting file _wtmp_ is maintained by [**init**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/init/8/markdown) and [**login**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/login/1/markdown). Neither **ac **nor **login **creates the _wtmp_ if it doesn't exist, no accounting is done. To begin accounting, create the file with a length of zero. NOTE: The _wtmp_ file can get really big, really fast. You might want to trim it every once and a while. GNU **ac **works nearly the same UNIX **ac**, though it's a little smarter in several ways. You should therefore expect differences in the output of GNU **ac **and the output of **ac**'s on other systems. Use the command **info _**accounting_ to get additional information. ## OPTIONS ### -d, --daily-totals Print totals for each day rather than just one big total at the end. The output looks like this: Jul 3 total 1.17 Jul 4 total 2.10 Jul 5 total 8.23 Jul 6 total 2.10 Jul 7 total 0.30 ### -p, --individual-totals Print time totals for each user in addition to the usual everything-lumped-into-one value. It looks like: bob 8.06 goff 0.60 maley 7.37 root 0.12 total 16.15 _people_ Print out the sum total of the connect time used by all of the users included in _peo‐_ _ple._ Note that _people_ is a space separated list of valid user names; wildcards are not allowed. ### -f, --file _ Read from the file _filename_ instead of the system's _wtmp_ file. ### --complain When the _wtmp_ file has a problem (a time-warp, missing record, or whatever), print out an appropriate error. ### --reboots Reboot records are NOT written at the time of a reboot, but when the system restarts; therefore, it is impossible to know exactly when the reboot occurred. Users may have been logged into the system at the time of the reboot, and many **ac's **automatically count the time between the login and the reboot record against the user (even though all of that time shouldn't be, perhaps, if the system is down for a long time, for in‐ stance). If you want to count this time, include the flag. *For vanilla **ac **compati‐ bility, include this flag.* ### --supplants Sometimes, a logout record is not written for a specific terminal, so the time that the last user accrued cannot be calculated. If you want to include the time from the user's login to the next login on the terminal (though probably incorrect), include this you want to include the time from the user's login to the next login on the ter‐ minal (though probably incorrect), include this flag. *For vanilla **ac **compatibility, include this flag.* ### --timewarps Sometimes, entries in a _wtmp_ file will suddenly jump back into the past without a clock change record occurring. It is impossible to know how long a user was logged in when this occurs. If you want to count the time between the login and the time warp against the user, include this flag. *For vanilla **ac **compatibility, include this flag.* ### --compatibility This is shorthand for typing out the three above options. ### -a, --all-days If we're printing daily totals, print a record for every day instead of skipping in‐ tervening days where there is no login activity. Without this flag, time accrued dur‐ ing those intervening days gets listed under the next day where there is login activi‐ ty. **--tw-leniency _**num_ Set the time warp leniency to _num_ seconds. Records in _wtmp_ files might be slightly out of order (most notably when two logins occur within a one-second period - the sec‐ ond one gets written first). By default, this value is set to 60. If the program no‐ tices this problem, time is not assigned to users unless the **--timewarps **flag is used. **--tw-suspicious _**num_ Set the time warp suspicious value to _num_ seconds. If two records in the _wtmp_ file are farther than this number of seconds apart, there is a problem with the _wtmp_ file (or your machine hasn't been used in a year). If the program notices this problem, time is not assigned to users unless the **--timewarps **flag is used. ### -y, --print-year Print year when displaying dates. ### -z, --print-zeros If a total for any category (save the grand total) is zero, print it. The default is to suppress printing. ### --debug Print verbose internal information. ### -V, --version Print the version number of **ac **to standard output and quit. ### -h, --help Prints the usage string and default locations of system files to standard output and exits. ## FILES _wtmp_ The system wide login record file. See [**wtmp**(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/wtmp/5/markdown) for further details. ## AUTHOR The GNU accounting utilities were written by Noel Cragg <>. The man page was adapted from the accounting texinfo page by Susan Kleinmann <>. ## SEE ALSO [**login**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/login/1/markdown), [**wtmp**(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/wtmp/5/markdown), [**init**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/init/8/markdown), [**sa**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/sa/8/markdown) 2010 August 16 [_AC_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/AC/1/markdown)