FINGER(1)                            BSD                             FINGER(1)



NAME
     finger - user information lookup program

SYNOPSIS
     finger [ options ] name ...

DESCRIPTION
     By default finger lists the log-in name, full name, terminal name and
     write status (as a "*" before the terminal name if write permission is
     denied), idle time, log-in time, and office location and phone number (if
     they are known) for each current 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 you specify a
     list of people's names. Account names as well as users' first and last
     names are accepted.  This format is multiline, and includes all the
     information described above as well as the user's home directory and
     log-in shell, any plan which the person has placed in the file .plan in
     his home directory, and the project he is working on from the file
     .project, also in the home directory.

     finger can be used to look up users on a remote machine.  Specify the
     user as "user@host".  If you omit the username, finger provides the
     standard format listing on the remote machine.

OPTIONS
     -m        Match arguments only on username.

     -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 log-in times
     ~/.plan             Plans
     ~/.project          Projects

NOTES
     finger performs poorly in large registries, unless you use the -m option.

BUGS
     finger prints only the first line of the .project file.

     The encoding of the gcos field is UCB dependent.

     You cannot pass arguments to the remote machine, as finger uses an
     internet standard port.

     A user information database 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.

     Domain/OS does not support /usr/adm/lastlog.

SEE ALSO
     chfn(1), who(1)