Module 56 finger | Illustrated Unix System V/Bsd

Table of Contents

Module 56
finger

DESCRIPTION

The external finger command displays a detailed list of user information. If you specify a user_name, information for only that user is displayed. If no user_name is given, information for all users currently logged in to the system is displayed. By default, only a one-line summary of information is displayed for each user .

The following information is displayed by default:

Full name, field five of the /etc/passwd file

Terminal name (tty device)

Write status of terminal. Terminal name is preceded by a * if write permission is denied to other users.

Idle time since the last keystrokes. A single digit represents minutes, a colon -separated number is hours:minutes, and a number preceded by d refers to days.

Office location

Phone number

If you specify user_names, then a full listing of information is displayed for each user you specify. This listing includes:

User s home directory

User s login shell

User s ~/.plan file

User s ~/.project file

in addition to the first list of information presented above.

The finger command can also be used to look up user information across a network. Be aware of a time delay for the information to be returned. On a local network it should respond within a few seconds, but it could be longer depending on the network traffic load and the remote system s load.

COMMAND FORMAT

Following is the general format of the finger command.

 finger [ -bfhilmpqsw ] user_name      finger [ -l ] "user@host"


BSD (Berkeley)
	`finger [ -l ] [ -m ] [ -p ] [ -s ] [ user_name ] [ last ] [ first ]`
	`finger "user@host"`

Options

The following list describes the options and their arguments that may be used to control how finger functions.

-b	Suppress the user s home directory and login shell from a long format display.
-f	Suppress the default header from short format displays.
-h	Suppress the .project file from a long format display.
-i	Display idle output format, only the login name, terminal line, login time, and idles time are displayed.
-l	Force a long output format. All of the information listed in the two previous lists is displayed.
-m	Match arguments only against user names (field one of the /etc/passwd file). By default finger matches the arguments you provide against the username, first names or last names.
-p	Suppress the display of the .plan files.
-q	Display quick output format, only the login name, terminal line, and login time are displayed.
-s	Force a short output format. Only the first set of information listed above is displayed.
-w	Suppress the full user name from a short format display.

BSD (Berkeley)
Only the -l, -m, -p, and -s options are supported. They have the same meaning as the System V options.

Arguments

The following list describes the arguments that may be passed to the finger command.

first	The first name of a user. finger searches the fifth field of the /etc/passwd file for a match.
last	The last name of the user. finger searches the fifth field of the /etc/passwd file for a match.
user_name	The name of the user you want information about.
user@host	Requests information about a user residing on the system named host.
	If no user is specified, information is returned for all current users logged into the system.

DIAGNOSTICS AND BUGS

The finger program only displays the first line of a user s $HOME/.project file, even if multiple lines exist.

If finger seems slow, it may be caused by a large /etc/passwd file. To help speed up finger use the -m option.

RELATED COMMANDS

Refer to the who command described in Module 159.

RELATED FILES

The following files are accessed by finger for the required information.

/etc/utmp	The current who file
/etc/passwd	The system s password file
/var/adm/lastlog	An administrative file used to track the last login times of users
~/.plan	The user s plan. In the academic world this was the major; in business it is usually future projects
~/.project	The user s current project

Table of Contents