finger(C)                       19 June 1992                       finger(C)


 Name

    finger - find information about users

 Syntax

    finger [ -bfilpqsw ] [ login1 [ login2 ... ] ]

 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, 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 colon (:) 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
    names is given. (Account names as well as first and last names of users
    are accepted.)  This is a multi-line format; it includes all the informa-
    tion described above as well as the user's home directory 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 working from the file
    .project which is also in the home directory.

    finger options are:

    -b   Briefer long output format of users.

    -f   Suppresses the printing of the header line (short format).

    -i   Quick list of users with idle times.

    -l   Forces long output format.

    -p   Suppresses printing of the .plan files.

    -q   Quick list of users.

    -s   Forces short output format.

    -w   Forces narrow format list of specified users.

 Files

    /etc/utmp           who file
    /etc/passwd         user names, offices, phones, login directories, and
                        shells
    $HOME/.plan         plans
    $HOME/.project      projects

 See also

    w(C), who(C)

 Credit

    This utility was developed at the University of California at Berkeley
    and is used with permission.

 Notes

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

    Entries in the /etc/passwd file have the following format:

    login name:user password(coded):user ID:group ID:comments:home
    directory:login shell

    The comment field corresponds to what appears in the finger output.  For
    example, in the following /etc/passwd entry:

    blf:*:47:5:Brian Foster, Mission, x70, 767-1234
    :/u/blf:/bin/sh

    the comment field, ``Brian Foster, Mission, x70, 767-1234'', contains
    data for the ``In Real Life'', ``Office'', and ``Home Phone'' columns of
    the finger listings.

    Idle time is computed as the elapsed time since any activity on the given
    terminal.  This includes previous invocations of finger which may have
    modified the terminal's corresponding device file /dev/tty??.