FINGER(C) XENIX System V FINGER(C)
Name
finger - Finds 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 XENIX 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 multiline
format; it includes all the information 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
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FINGER(C) XENIX System V FINGER(C)
See Also
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 configurable columns in the
finger output. For example, in the following /etc/passwd
entry:
blf:Tg6bLFzOwgfbA:47:5:Brian Foster, Mission, x70, 767-1234
:/u/blf:/bin/shV
the comment field, contains data for the and 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??.
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