Generally, on your console you will find a username is printed on the command prompt. But in some shell such as csh, by default you will not see your username there. So this command particularly is used with the shell which don’t print the username on their shell.
How do I run whoami
To run this command, just type whoami. For this sample we are using chs shell.
% whoami
Whoami options
This command only have two options. --help and --version.
% whoamin --help
This options will output the same information with man whoami
% whoami --version
While --version will show you the version of whoami in your system
Similarity
Whoami command has the same output with command id -un. It also print the username of current user.
% id -un
Conclusion
Whoami command is also used when you are doing su activity (switch user). This command can confirm you that you are logged in using a correct user. Whoami is different with who command. Who command display all logged in user while whoami not. When you are switching user, whoami will reports the current user which the owner of the session, while who command will report you the original user before you are switching user.
