{
    "mode": "man",
    "parameter": "whowatch",
    "section": "1",
    "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/whowatch/1/json",
    "generated": "2026-05-30T05:14:35Z",
    "sections": {
        "NAME": {
            "content": "whowatch - console, interactive, process and users monitoring tool.\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "DESCRIPTION": {
            "content": "Whowatch  is an console, interactive users and process monitoring tool.  It displays informa‐\ntion about the users currently logged on to the machine, in real-time.  Besides standard  in‐\nformation  (login name, tty, host, user's process), the type of the connection (ie. telnet or\nssh) is shown.  Display of users command line can be switch to tty idle time.   Certain  user\ncan be selected and his processes tree may be viewed as well as tree of all system processes.\nTree may be displayed with additional column that  shows  owner  of  each  process.   In  the\nprocess  tree  mode  SIGINT,  SIGHUP, SIGTERM and SIGKILL signals can be sent to the selected\nprocess. Killing processes is just as simple and fun as deleting lines on the screen.\n\nWhowatch has no command line options or configuration file.  All  actions  are  performed  in\nreal time by pressing following keys:\n\nUsers list mode:\n",
            "subsections": [
                {
                    "name": "'up' 'down'",
                    "content": "cursor movement\n\n'i'    toggle between user command line and idle time\n\n'c'    full  command line on/off. Disabling full command line can save CPU time.  It can give\nyou also some additional information about process executable.\n"
                },
                {
                    "name": "'enter'",
                    "content": "view selected user's processes tree.\n\n't'    all system processes (init tree)\n\nTree mode:\n"
                },
                {
                    "name": "'up' 'down'",
                    "content": "cursor movement\n"
                },
                {
                    "name": "'enter'",
                    "content": "go back to users list\n\n'o'    show processes owners\n\n'c'    full command line on/off. Disabling full command line can save CPU time.  It can  give\nyou also some additional information about process executable.\n"
                },
                {
                    "name": "'Ctrl-I'",
                    "content": "send INT signal to selected process\n"
                },
                {
                    "name": "'Ctrl-K'",
                    "content": "send KILL signal to selected process\n"
                },
                {
                    "name": "'Ctrl-U'",
                    "content": "send HUP signal to selected process\n"
                },
                {
                    "name": "'Ctrl-T'",
                    "content": "send TERM signal to selected process\n\n"
                }
            ]
        },
        "PLUGINS": {
            "content": "Whowatch  has  ability  to  load plugin during program run.  Plugin prints information inside\ndetails window.  Plugins gives flexibility: if some specific information about process,  user\nor system is needed then separate program could be written to obtain such information.  Since\nthere are three kinds of deatils window (process, user and system) maximum three plugins  can\nbe loaded.  Whowatch has very simple API to write plugins.\n\n\n\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "FILES": {
            "content": "Program  reads  /var/log/wtmp, /var/run/utmp. Under Linux program also reads files from /proc\ndirectory. Without read access to these  files  whowatch  funcionality  will  be  limited  or\nprogram will not even start.\n\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "SEE ALSO": {
            "content": "finger(1) ps(1), pstree(1), top(1), w(1), lsof(8), kill(1) killall(1)\n\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "BUGS": {
            "content": "Because  lack  of utpid in utmp and wtmp structures in *BSD systems, program tries to obtain\npid of a login shell by analyzing processes controlling terminal and processes  names.  Under\nsome  conditions  it may lead to incorrect results ie. there will be incorrect processes tree\nassociated with user's session.\n\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "AUTHOR": {
            "content": "Michal Suszycki <mike@wizard.ae.krakow.pl>,\nhttp://wizard.ae.krakow.pl/~mike\nTree functions written by Jan Bobrowski <jb@wizard.ae.krakow.pl>,\nhttp://wizard.ae.krakow.pl/~jb\n\n\n\n27 Feb 2000                                 WHOWATCH(1)",
            "subsections": []
        }
    },
    "summary": "whowatch - console, interactive, process and users monitoring tool.",
    "flags": [],
    "examples": [],
    "see_also": [
        {
            "name": "finger",
            "section": "1",
            "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/finger/1/json"
        },
        {
            "name": "ps",
            "section": "1",
            "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ps/1/json"
        },
        {
            "name": "pstree",
            "section": "1",
            "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/pstree/1/json"
        },
        {
            "name": "top",
            "section": "1",
            "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/top/1/json"
        },
        {
            "name": "w",
            "section": "1",
            "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/w/1/json"
        },
        {
            "name": "lsof",
            "section": "8",
            "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lsof/8/json"
        },
        {
            "name": "kill",
            "section": "1",
            "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/kill/1/json"
        },
        {
            "name": "killall",
            "section": "1",
            "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/killall/1/json"
        }
    ]
}