Paste this into Bash:
get_screen_time() {
since=${1:-today}
until_opt=${2:+--until "$2"}
journalctl --output json -u systemd-logind --since "$since" $until_opt | \
jq -r 'select(.MESSAGE_ID and .__REALTIME_TIMESTAMP) |
if (.MESSAGE | test("Lid opened|Starting systemd-logind|Operation .suspend. finished")) then
.__REALTIME_TIMESTAMP + " start"
elif (.MESSAGE | test("Lid closed|Stopping systemd-logind|system will suspend")) then
.__REALTIME_TIMESTAMP + " stop"
else
empty
end' | \
awk -v current_time=$(date +%s%6N) '
{
if ($2 == "start") {
last_start = $1
} else if ($2 == "stop" && last_start != 0) {
total += ($1 - last_start) / 1000000
last_start = 0
}
}
END {
if (last_start != 0) {
total += (current_time - last_start) / 1000000
}
seconds = int(total)
hours = int(seconds/3600)
minutes = int((seconds%3600)/60)
printf "%02d:%02d", hours, minutes
}'
}
PS1='$(get_screen_time) '$PS1
Now you have screen time for today in your prompt:
00:21 user@asus:~/Documents$
00:21 user@asus:~/Documents$ cd ../Pictures/
00:21 user@asus:~/Pictures$
Cool?


Uptime shows how long the system has been up, not how long one has been interacting with the system.
Oh, right, my bad. But fret not there’s
last -n1for that.I don’t believe that does the same thing either. What if I lock my computer, sleep it, and step away for the day? I haven’t logged out, but my interactive session has ended.
Last shows how long the last user logged in has been logged in. So if your system routinely has multiple users logged in, this may not be a useful metric.