finger(1tcp)

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.

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.
-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.

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 username 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(4tcp) for details.

Information returned by the finger command 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
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)

References

inetd(1Mtcp), inetd.conf(4tcp), passwd(4), who(1), whois(1tcp)