GNU bug report logs - #73928
"who" should support wtmpdb

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Package: coreutils;

Reported by: Vincent Lefevre <vincent <at> vinc17.net>

Date: Mon, 21 Oct 2024 11:17:02 UTC

Severity: normal

Merged with 76346, 76347

Done: Chris Hofstaedtler <zeha <at> debian.org>

Bug is archived. No further changes may be made.

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From: Bruno Haible <bruno <at> clisp.org>
To: bug-gnulib <at> gnu.org, Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
Cc: 1080330 <at> bugs.debian.org, Thorsten Kukuk <kukuk <at> suse.com>, Chris Hofstaedtler <zeha <at> debian.org>, Vincent Lefevre <vincent <at> vinc17.net>, Michael Stone <mstone <at> debian.org>, 73928 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#73928: Bug#1080330: coreutils: who no longer works
Date: Mon, 17 Feb 2025 09:12:31 +0100

Paul Eggert wrote:
> If I configure current (f2e323430193956709aacca33f6b4fcab4fb9d8b) 
> Coreutils with --enable-systemd on my Ubuntu 24.10 desktop, the output 
> gets worse:
> 
>    $ ./who-no-systemd # Configured normally.
>    eggert   seat0        2025-02-15 10:11 (login screen)
>    eggert   tty2         2025-02-15 10:11 (tty2)
>    $ ./who-with-systemd # Configured with --enable-systemd.
>    eggert   seat0        2025-02-15 10:11
>    eggert   tty2         2025-02-15 10:11
> 
> Apparently for coreutils, /var/run/utmp (the traditional interface) has 
> more info than libsystemd's API.

Both outputs are equivalent; the second one is less redundant.
  - The comment "(tty2)" is redundant because it's already the tty.
  - The comment "(login screen)" is redundant because that's the
    concept of a "seat".

> Similarly, on a Fedora 41 desktop where I'm not currently logged in, I 
> get inferior results when Coreutils is configured with --enable-systemd:
> 
>    $ ./who-no-systemd
>    eggert   pts/3        2025-02-16 22:56 (47.147.225.25)
>    $ ./who-with-systemd
>    gdm      seat0        2025-02-13 18:04
>    gdm      tty1         2025-02-13 18:04
>    eggert   sshd pts/3   2025-02-16 22:56 (47.147.225.25)
> 
> Here, though I'm logged in only via ssh, the libsystemd-using 'who' 
> incorrectly reports that a user named "gdm" is logged in in person.

'who' merely reports the info it got from systemd-logind, and systemd-logind
most probably got a notification from gdm.

I agree with you that this _looks_like_ as if a user named 'gdm' was logged
in, and thus is misleading. But I don't think this should be fixed in
coreutils. Rather, this is something to work out between systemd-logind
and gdm.

Bruno
This bug report was last modified 92 days ago.

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