Linux has many ways to help an administrator to view the logs, both through graphical and command-line methods:

1. If we want to check the incorrect login attempts for a particular user, like root for instance, we can do so by using this command:

    lastb root  

2. To see the log using the Terminal, we use the dmesg command. This command displays the buffer of the Linux kernel's message stored in memory, as shown here:

3. If we wish to filter the preceding output to show only the logs related to USB devices, we can do so by using grep:

4. Instead of viewing all the logs, if we wish to view only the 10 most recent logs in a particular log file, the command will be as follows:

In the preceding command, the -n option is used to specify the number of lines to be shown.

5. If we wish to see the most recent login attempts for a user account, use last:

The last command displays var/log/wtmp in a formatted way.

6. If we want to see the last time each user logged in to the system, we can use the lastlog command: