.\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1990, 1993
.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
.\" %sccs.include.redist.roff%
.\" @(#)login.1 8.2 (Berkeley) %G%
.Nd log into the computer
utility logs users (and pseudo-users) into the computer system.
If no user is specified, or if a user is specified and authentication
Authentication of users is done via passwords.
The options are as follows:
option is used when a user name is specified to indicate that proper
authentication has already been done and that no password need be
This option may only be used by the super-user or when an already
logged in user is logging in as themselves.
option specifies the host from which the connection was received.
It is used by various daemons such as
This option may only be used by the super-user.
discards any previous environment.
option disables this behavior.
dislays its contents to the user and exits.
to prevent users from logging in when the system is about to go down.
Immediately after logging a user in,
displays the system copyright notice, the date and time the user last
logged in, the message of the day as well as other information.
exists in the user's home directory, all of these messages are suppressed.
This is to simplify logins for non-human users, such as
then records an entry in the
files and executes the user's command interpretor.
Login enters information into the environment (see
specifying the user's home directory (HOME), command interpreter (SHELL),
search path (PATH), terminal type (TERM) and user name (both LOGNAME and
do not fork before executing the
.Bl -tag -width /var/mail/userXXX -compact
last login account records
projects / unix-history / blob