How to determine unused ports on the switch

[uppermost]

On the Cisco switch, what is the difference between

Last input never, output never, output hang never

Last input never, output 1w6d, output hang never

I need to know how many ports were never used so that we can reduce number of switches in the stack.

[MHM Cisco World]

I think these count you mention is change every time the port UP/DOWN

[Flavio Miranda]

Hi

 Use the command  "show interface link"  instead. Much better.

[MHM Cisco World]

show interface counters <<- this if I am right and you never clear count before give you detail about the packet pass through interface. the interface that have zero count is interface never use.

[Leo Laohoo]

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@uppermost wrote:
Last input never

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This is the one that counts.  This means this is the "last time" the switch has seen traffic COMING FROM the downstream device.  

If the "Last input" value is "never" and the port is up/up then it means the downstream device "never talked".

[uppermost]

So if I have something like this

Does it mean port is in use ? or am I seeing Last input never because there is a CEF configuried ?

[MHM Cisco World]

this port is new connect and is it used before, I think Yes check the INput and OUTput packet count is in thousand  

[Leo Laohoo]

Look at the volume of the input packets(27947) and compare it with the output packets (1025515).  Look at the difference.  Look at the ratio.  It is wide. 

The screenshot tells me that, at one time, the device was talking (27947 input packets) but stopped.  The switch keeps sending packets down the line because, as far as the ARP table says, the MAC address is down this line.  

In my opinion, whatever is connected to that port, the NIC is broken.