What does it mean when I appear twice in the output given by 'finger', on Ubuntu 9.04

Question

Here is what I get when I type finger in the command line and press enter:

Login     Name       Tty      Idle  Login Time   Office     Office Phone
shawn     Shawn      tty7     4:26  Oct  4 14:29 (:0)
shawn     Shawn      pts/0          Oct  4 16:44 (:0.0)

Why is my name in there twice. Can I be logged in twice?

Thanks

Answer 1

You will see a single entry for each terminal You're connected to. Names from tty1 to tty6 are "regular" terminals (available at Ctrl+Alt+Fx, where x goes from 1 to 6), tty7 is used for GNOME/KDE session (one is active and You're logged and this is why You see this entry).

/dev/pty/x are virtual terminals, those available when You use e.g. gnome-terminal or when You log via ssh.

So yes, You'll usually see Yourself at least in 2 entries.

Answer 2

Yes, you can. As an example, have a look at my default gnome-terminal profile ("Run command as a login shell"). I log in every time I open a terminal.

finger typically shows you the currently active sessions as maintained in /var/run/utmp, which is where an entry is added whenever you begin any kind of "login" session. From man login:

   /var/run/utmp
       List of current login sessions.

   /var/log/wtmp
       List of previous login sessions.

Answer 3

Local terminal and SSH session?