chfn(1)                                                   chfn(1)



NAME
     chfn - changes the real-name field  of  your  password  file
     entry for use by finger

SYNOPSIS
     chfn [login-name]

ARGUMENTS
     login-name
          Specifies the login name of the user whose entry in the
          /etc/passwd file is to be changed. Only the system
          administrator can specify the login name of another
          user.

DESCRIPTION
     chfn changes the real-name field of your entry in the
     /etc/passwd file.  The new information, which consists of
     your real name, office address, office phone number, and
     home phone number, is used by finger and other commands.
     For example, lp prints this information on the banner page.

     The chfn command asks you for information by using a prompt
     that ends with a colon (:).  The prompt encloses in brackets
     the current value, if any.  To accept the current value,
     press RETURN.  To enter a blank for a current value, type
     the word none.  You can enter phone numbers with or without
     hyphens.

     When prompted for your office address, you may want to enter
     your mail stop because the finger command uses the heading
     Mail Stop to report the office address information.

EXAMPLES
     In this example, the user accepts the current value of his
     name, adds his office address and phone number, and makes
     blank the value of his home phone number:

        Name [Biff Studsworth II]:
        Office Address (Exs: Grey 222 or MS 32C) []: 521E
        Office Phone (Ex: 845-9934 or x-378) []: 1863
        Home Phone (Ex: 9875432) [5441546]: none

     After you run chfn, you should run finger to make sure your
     entry is the way you want it.

STATUS MESSAGES AND VALUES
     Because two users may try to write to /etc/passwd at the
     same time, commands that modify /etc/passwd make a copy of
     /etc/passwd and call it /etc/ptmp.  If /etc/ptmp already
     exists because another user is running a command (such as
     adduser, chsh, passwd, yppasswd, or vipw) that also creates
     /etc/ptmp, chfn displays this message:



January 1992                                                    1

chfn(1)                                                   chfn(1)



        Temporary file busy -- try again

     In this case, try running chfn again in a few seconds.

FILES
     /usr/ucb/chfn
          Executable file
     /etc/passwd
          File that is modified by chfn
     /etc/ptmp
          File containing a temporary copy of /etc/passwd

SEE ALSO
     finger(1)

     passwd(4) in A/UX Programmer's Reference







































2                                                    January 1992