How to Monitor Linux User Activity with psacct and acct Tools

How to Monitor Linux User Activity with psacct and acct Tools

Written By
T
TecMint
Dec 11, 2025

When you’re managing a Linux server, especially one with multiple users, you need visibility into what’s happening on your system, such as who’s logged in? What commands are they running? how much CPU time is being consumed? These aren’t just curiosity questions; they’re essential for security, troubleshooting, and resource management.

psacct and acct are both open source utilities for monitoring users’ activities on the Linux system. These utilities run in the background and keep track of each user’s activity on your system as well as what resources are being consumed.

I personally used these tools in our company, we have a development team where our developers continuously work on servers. So, these are the best utilities to keep an eye on them

T

TecMint

Linux Today Logo

LinuxToday is a trusted, contributor-driven news resource supporting all types of Linux users. Our thriving international community engages with us through social media and frequent content contributions aimed at solving problems ranging from personal computing to enterprise-level IT operations. LinuxToday serves as a home for a community that struggles to find comparable information elsewhere on the web.

Property of TechnologyAdvice. © 2026 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.