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finger - display information about users
finger [ options ] name...
By default, finger displays information about each logged-in
user, including his or her: login name, full name, terminal
name (prepended with a `*' if write-permission is denied),
idle time, login time, and location (comment field in
/etc/ttytab for users logged in locally, hostname for users
logged in remotely) 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.
When one or more name arguments are given, more detailed
information is given for each name specified, whether they
are logged in or not. A name may be a first or last name,
or an account name. Information is presented in a multiline
format, and includes, in addition to the information
mentioned above:
the user's home directory and login shell
the time they logged in if they are currently logged
in, or the time they last logged in if they are not, as
well as the terminal or host from which they logged in
and, if a terminal, the comment field in /etc/ttytab
for that terminal
the last time they received mail, and the last time
they read their mail
any plan contained in the file .plan in the user's home
directory
and any project on which they are working described in
the file .project (also in that directory)
If a name argument contains an at-sign, `@', then a connection
is attempted to the machine named after the at-sign,
and the remote finger daemon is queried. The data returned
by that daemon is printed. If a long format printout is to
be produced, finger passes the -l option to the remote
finger daemon over the network using the /W feature of the
protocol (see NAME/FINGER Protocol).
-m Match arguments only on user name (not first or last
name).
- -l
- Force long output format.
- -s
- Force short output format.
- -q
- Force quick output format, which is similar to short
format except that only the login name, terminal, and
login time are printed.
- -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.
- -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.
- -w
- Suppress printing the full name in a short format printout.
- -h
- Suppress printing of the .project file in a long format
printout.
- -p
- Suppress printing of the .plan file in a long format
printout.
- /etc/utmp
- who is logged in
- /etc/passwd
- for users' names
- /var/adm/lastlog
- last login times
- /etc/ttytab
- terminal locations
- ~/.plan
- plans
- ~/.project
- projects
passwd(1), w(1), who(1), whois(1)
Harrenstien, K., NAME/FINGER Protocol, 1977 December 30, RFC
742.
Only the first line of the .project file is printed.
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