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whoami

coreutils whoami command
Developer(s)	Bill Joy, Richard Mlynarik, Intel, Microsoft, ReactOS Contributors, Novell
Operating system	Unix, Unix-like, iRMX 86, Windows, ReactOS, NetWare
Platform	Cross-platform
Type	Command
License	BSD: BSD License coreutils: GPLv3 iRMX 86, Windows, NetWare: Proprietary commercial software ReactOS: GPLv2

In computing, whoami is a command found on most Unix-like operating systems, Intel iRMX 86, every Microsoft Windows^[1] operating system since Windows Server 2003, and on ReactOS. It is a concatenation of the words "Who am I?" and prints the effective username of the current user when invoked.

The command has the same effect as the Unix command id -un. On Unix-like operating systems, the output of the command is slightly different from $USER because whoami outputs the username that the user is working under, whereas $USER outputs the username that was used to log in. For example, if the user logged in as John and su into root, whoami displays root and echo $USER displays John. This is because the su command does not invoke a login shell by default.

The earliest versions were created in 2.9 BSD as a convenience form for who am i, the Berkeley Unix who command's way of printing just the logged in user's identity. This version was developed by Bill Joy.^[2]

The GNU version was written by Richard Mlynarik and is part of the GNU Core Utilities (coreutils).

The command is available as a separate package for Microsoft Windows as part of the GnuWin32 project^[3] and the UnxUtils collection of native Win32 ports of common GNU Unix-like utilities.^[4]

On Intel iRMX 86 this command lists the currents user's identification and access rights.^[5]

The command is also available as part of the Windows 2000 Resource Kit^[6] and Windows XP SP2 Support Tools.^[7]

The ReactOS version was developed by Ismael Ferreras Morezuelas and is licensed under the GPLv2.^[8]

This command was also available as a NetWare-Command residing in the public-directory of the fileserver. It also outputs the current connections to which server the workstation is attached with which username.

# whoami
root

--WHOAMI
USER ID: 5
ACCESS ID'S: 5, WORLD

C:\Users\admin>whoami
workgroup\admin

• logname
• id
• who
• User identifiers for Unix
• List of Unix commands

• Barrett, Daniel J. (2012). Macintosh Terminal Pocket Guide: Take Command of Your Mac. O'Reilly. ISBN 978-1449328986.
• Stanek, William R. (2008). Windows Command-Line Administrator's Pocket Consultant, 2nd Edition. Microsoft Press. ISBN 978-0735622623.

• whoami(1) – 4.2BSD General Commands Manual
• whoami(1) – FreeBSD General Commands Manual
• whoami | Microsoft Docs