finger(1) finger(1)
NAME
finger - display information about local and remote users
SYNOPSIS
finger [-bfhilmpqsw] [username . . .]
finger username@hostname . . .
DESCRIPTION
The finger command displays summary and detailed information
about users on local and remote machines.
Files
/var/adm/utmp who is logged in
/etc/passwd for users' names
/var/adm/lastlog last login times
~/.plan plans
~/.project projects
USAGE
The first form of the finger command displays summary
information about each logged-in user on the local machine,
including the user's login name, full name, terminal name,
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. In short
output format, the terminal name is prepended with a `*' if
write-permission is denied.
When one or more username arguments are given, finger displays
detailed information for each username specified, regardless
of whether the user is currently logged in. username may be
specified as a first name, a last name, or an account name.
If the username argument contains an at-sign `@', a connection
is attempted to the hostname specified after the at-sign.
Once the connection is established, the remote finger daemon
is queried, passing the -l option. The data returned by the
remote daemon is printed in long output format (on a remote
query, no other output format options are recognized). Note
that, for finger to work with a remote system, the in.fingerd
daemon must be enabled on the remote system. See
inetd.conf(4) for details.
Information returned by the finger command is presented in a
multi-line format, and includes, in addition to the
information mentioned above:
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finger(1) finger(1)
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
last time the user received mail, and last time the user
read mail
any plan contained in the file .plan in the user's home
directory
any project on which the user is working described in
the file
.project (also in the user's home directory; note that
only the first line of the ~/.project file is printed)
Options
On a local query, the finger command takes the following
options:
-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.
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finger(1) finger(1)
-s Force short output format.
-w Suppress printing the full name in a short format
printout.
Note that, within the TCP/IP network, only the -l option can
be used remotely.
REFERENCES
inetd(1M), inetd.conf(4), passwd(4), who(1), whois(1)
Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc. Page 3