In the next article we are going to take a look at whowatch. This is an interactive, simple and easy-to-use command line program with which we can monitor processes and users on a Gnu / Linux system. It will show us who logged into the system and what they are doing at that precise moment. It does this in a similar way to the 'w '.
The program us it will show the total number of users in the system and the number of users according to the type of connection. In addition, it will also show us the activity time of the system and information about the user's login name.
In case there are different users, we will be able to select one of them in particular and see its process tree. To enter in process tree mode, we can send the signs SIGINT and SIGKILL to the selected process.
Whowatch is an interactive utility similar to ncurses that will show us in the terminal information about the users currently connected to the machine, in real time. In addition to the standard information (login name, tty, host, user process), it will also show us the type of connection (i.e telnet or ssh).
In the interface we will be able to select a certain user to see his process tree, as well as the tree of all the system processes. The tree can be displayed with an additional column showing the owner of each process.
Install whowatch on Ubuntu
The program whowatch can be easily installed from the default repositories using the package manager of our Ubuntu distribution. We just have to open a terminal (Ctrl + Alt + T) and type the commands:
sudo apt update; sudo apt install whowatch
Once the installation is complete, all you have to do is write whowatch on the command line, to see the next screen.
whowatch
Some options available in whowatch
Among the different options that this terminal program offers to users, we can find:
View the details of a particular user. We will simply have to highlight the user, using the Up and Down arrows to navigate the user list. Once on the user that interests us, we will have to press the 'keyby to list user information, as shown in the above screenshot.
To view a user's process tree, there will be no more than press the key Intro after highlighting the user that interests us.
To see all process trees of the system, it will be necessary press the 'keyt '.
It also can view system information by pressing the 'keys'.
Using the 'key/' we will be able search for an open process. Found the process that interests us, you can press the 'keyby for process info in question.
Pressing the 'keyo' can be see the user who owns each process.
With Ctrl-I we will send an INT signal to the selected process.
Ctrl-K sends the KILL signal to the process we select.
To get more information on how to use this program, you can consult the manual page of whowatch as it's shown in the following:
man whowatch
Today these types of tools are nothing new, since there are many developments to allow us to control each of these elements, since it is important that we centrally manage both users and processes,. With this it is sought know which users have permissions on the equipment, which are active and which processes are being executed, either for support or control reasons.
Without a doubt, with this simple tool we will be able to know in real time everything that happens with the users and processes of our teams. In short, it only remains to say that whowatch is a simple and easy to use interactive command line utility on a Gnu / Linux system.