xref: /freebsd/libexec/fingerd/fingerd.8 (revision 5f4c09dd85bff675e0ca63c55ea3c517e0fddfcc)
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28.\"     @(#)fingerd.8	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
29.\"
30.Dd November 19, 2014
31.Dt FINGERD 8
32.Os
33.Sh NAME
34.Nm fingerd
35.Nd remote user information server
36.Sh SYNOPSIS
37.Nm
38.Op Fl d
39.Op Fl k
40.Op Fl s
41.Op Fl l
42.Op Fl p Ar filename
43.Sh DESCRIPTION
44The
45.Nm
46utility uses a simple protocol based on
47.%T RFC1196
48that provides an interface to
49.Xr finger 1
50at several network sites.
51It is supposed to return a friendly,
52human-oriented status report on either the system at the moment
53or a particular person in depth.
54There is no required format and the
55protocol consists mostly of specifying a single
56.Dq "command line" ,
57thus,
58.Nm
59can also be used to implement other protocols in conjunction with the
60.Fl p
61flag.
62.Pp
63The
64.Nm
65utility is started by
66.Xr inetd 8 ,
67which listens for
68.Tn TCP
69requests at port 79.
70Once connected it reads a single command line
71terminated by a
72.Aq Tn CRLF
73which is passed to
74.Xr finger 1 .
75The
76.Nm
77utility closes its connections as soon as the output is finished.
78.Pp
79If the line is null (i.e., just a
80.Aq Tn CRLF
81is sent) then
82.Xr finger 1
83returns a
84.Dq default
85report that lists all people logged into
86the system at that moment.
87.Pp
88If a user name is specified (e.g.,\&
89.Pf eric Aq Tn CRLF )
90then the
91response lists more extended information for only that particular user,
92whether logged in or not.
93Allowable
94.Dq names
95in the command line include both
96.Dq login names
97and
98.Dq user names .
99If a name is ambiguous, all possible derivations are returned.
100.Pp
101The following options may be passed to
102.Nm
103as server program arguments in
104.Pa /etc/inetd.conf :
105.Bl -tag -width indent
106.It Fl d
107Enable debugging mode.
108In debugging mode,
109.Nm
110will not attempt any network-related operations on
111.Va stdin ,
112and it will print the full
113.Nm finger
114command line
115to
116.Va stderr
117before executing it.
118.It Fl k
119Suppress login information.
120See the description of the
121.Fl k
122option in
123.Xr finger 1
124for details.
125.It Fl s
126Enable secure mode.
127Queries without a user name are rejected and
128forwarding of queries to other remote hosts is denied.
129.It Fl l
130Enable logging.
131The name of the host originating the query is reported via
132.Xr syslog 3
133at LOG_NOTICE priority.
134.It Fl p
135Use an alternate program as the local information provider.
136The default local program
137executed by
138.Nm
139is
140.Xr finger 1 .
141By specifying a customized local server,
142this option allows a system manager
143to have more control over what information is
144provided to remote sites.
145If
146.Fl p
147is specified,
148.Nm
149will also set the environment variable
150.Ev FINGERD_REMOTE_HOST
151to the name of the host making the request.
152.El
153.Sh SEE ALSO
154.Xr finger 1 ,
155.Xr inetd 8
156.Sh HISTORY
157The
158.Nm
159utility appeared in
160.Bx 4.3 .
161