How to read the "IDLE" column in the output of the Linux 'w' command?

Solution 1:

From the man page

The standard format is DDdays, HH:MMm, MM:SS or SS.CC if the times are greater than 2 days, 1hour, or 1 minute respectively.

so your output is MM:SS (>1m and <1 hour).

Solution 2:

Without a qualifier, it means MM:SS -- that is, minutes and whole seconds. As an added bonus, there's a fourth format you don't have in that output -- a number of days (NNdays) of inactivity.

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Solution 3:

The answer is 27minutes and 47seconds

1. default format is MM:SS.
2. 22:29m means 22 hours and 29 minutes
3. 46.00s means 46 seconds
4. 4d means 4 days