Last Updated on 2021-08-29 by Clay
If we have a super user account in Linux server, we can check the other user’s command history (Include yourself).
I occasionally use this feature.
Occasionally, the permission was granted to the partners to use, and then found that the system was installed with something wrong, so I had to check what they did.
This is a wrong demonstration, it is best not to open permissions casually.
Check Your Command History
This is a classic command for checking your command history:
historyBut the disadvantage is that you can only view your own.
If you want to check the time when the command was issued by the way, you can also use:
export HISTTIMEFORMAT='%F %T 'In this way, the input of history will be displayed with time.
If you want to use this output format all the time, you can write it in the settings of ~/.bashrc.
Then use:
source ~/.bashrcLet the settings take effect immediately.
Check the “.bash_history” file of specific user
I checked the information on the Internet, it seems that depending on the environment, this file that records the commands issues by the user has various names, such as .history, .sh_history… and so no.
In my system, the file named .bash_history. If I want to check my command history:
cat /home/clay/.bash_historyBy the way, if you want to print the tail of the file all the time and check if there is an additional command, you can use the watch command:
watch -n 0.5 tail /home/clay/.bash_historyBut at the same time, you will also find that the command is not recorded immediately after it is reached, it is stored in the file after a while. And if the user logs out accidentally (sudden disconnection), then this file will omit the last few commands the user entered.
References
- https://superuser.com/questions/309434/how-to-view-command-history-of-another-user-in-linux/309435
- https://stackoverflow.com/questions/15698590/how-to-capture-all-the-commands-typed-in-unix-linux-by-any-user
- https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-monitor-your-ubuntu-16-04-system-with-sysdig