4.3BSD - /usr/man/cat1/finger.0

FINGER(1)                                                            FINGER(1)


NAME
       finger - user information lookup program

SYNOPSIS
       finger [ options ] name ...

DESCRIPTION
       By  default  finger  lists the login name, full name, terminal name and
       write status (as a ‘*’ before the terminal name if write permission  is
       denied),  idle  time,  login time, and office location and phone number
       (if they are known) for each current UNIX user.  (Idle time is  minutes
       if  it  is  a single integer, hours and minutes if a ’:’ is present, or
       days and hours if a ’d’ is present.)

       A longer format also exists and is used by finger whenever  a  list  of
       people’s  names  is  given.   (Account  names as well as first and last
       names of users are accepted.)  This format is multi-line, and  includes
       all  the  information described above as well as the user’s home direc‐
       tory and login shell, any plan which the person has placed in the  file
       .plan  in their home directory, and the project on which they are work‐
       ing from the file .project also in the home directory.

       Finger may be used to lookup users on a remote machine.  The format  is
       to  specify  the  user as ‘‘user@host.’’  If the user name is left off,
       the standard format listing is provided on the remote machine.

       Finger options include:

       -m     Match arguments only on user name.

       -l     Force long output format.

       -p     Suppress printing of the .plan files

       -s     Force short output format.

FILES
       /etc/utmp           who file
       /etc/passwd         for users names, offices, ...
       /usr/adm/lastlog    last login times
       ~/.plan             plans
       ~/.project          projects

SEE ALSO
       chfn(1), w(1), who(1)

AUTHOR
       Earl T. Cohen

BUGS
       Only the first line of the .project file is printed.

       The encoding of the gcos field is UCB dependent  -  it  knows  that  an
       office  ‘197MC’  is  ‘197M  Cory Hall’, and that ‘529BE’ is ‘529B Evans
       Hall’.  It also knows that a four digit office phone number should have
       a ‘‘x2-’’ prepended.

       There  is no way to pass arguments to the remote machine as finger uses
       an internet standard port.

       A user information data base is in the works and will  radically  alter
       the  way  the  information  that  finger  uses  is stored.  Finger will
       require extensive modification when this is implemented.


4th Berkeley Distribution        May 10, 1986                        FINGER(1)