NAME

finger − display information about local and remote users

SYNOPSIS

finger [ −bfhilmpqsw ] username. . .

finger [−l] username@hostname. . . (TCP/IP)

DESCRIPTION

By default, the finger command displays information about each , logged-in user, including login name, full name, terminal name (prepended with a ‘∗’ if write-permission is denied, a space if write-permission is allowed, and a ‘?’ if write-permission can’t be determined), idle time, login time, and location if known. 

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. 

When one or more username arguments are given, more detailed information is given for each username specified, whether they are logged in or not.  username must be that of a local user, and may be a first or last name, or an account name.  When finger is used to find users on a remote device, the user and the name of the remote device are specified in the form username@hostname.  Information is presented in a multi-line format, and includes, in addition to the information mentioned above:

the user’s home directory and login shell

time the user logged in if currently logged in, or the time the user last logged in if not, as well as the terminal or host from which the user logged in and, if a terminal. 

last time the user received mail, and the last time the user read their mail

any plan contained in the file .plan in the user’s home directory

and any project on which the user is working described in the file
­.project (also in the user’s home directory)

The following options are available:

−b Suppress printing the user’s home directory and shell in a long format printout. 

−f Suppress printing the header that is normally printed in a non-long format printout. 

−h Suppress printing of the .project file in a long format printout. 

−i Force “idle” output format, which is similar to short format except that only the login name, terminal, login time, and idle time are printed. 

−l Force long output format. 

−m Match arguments only on user name (not first or last name). 

−p Suppress printing of the .plan file in a long format printout. 

−q Force quick output format, which is similar to short format except that only the login name, terminal, and login time are printed. 

−s Force short output format. 

−w Suppress printing the full name in a short format printout. 

Within the TCP/IP network, the −l option can be used remotely. 

FILES

/var/adm/utmp who is logged in

/etc/passwd for users’ names

/var/adm/lastlog last login times

~/.plan plans

~/.project projects

SEE ALSO

passwd(1), who(1), whois(1)

NOTES

Only the first line of the ~/.project file is printed. 

  —  User Environment Utilities and Internet Utilities