xref: /freebsd/libexec/fingerd/fingerd.8 (revision d4eeb02986980bf33dd56c41ceb9fc5f180c0d47)
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28.\"     @(#)fingerd.8	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
29.\" $FreeBSD$
30.\"
31.Dd November 19, 2014
32.Dt FINGERD 8
33.Os
34.Sh NAME
35.Nm fingerd
36.Nd remote user information server
37.Sh SYNOPSIS
38.Nm
39.Op Fl d
40.Op Fl k
41.Op Fl s
42.Op Fl l
43.Op Fl p Ar filename
44.Sh DESCRIPTION
45The
46.Nm
47utility uses a simple protocol based on
48.%T RFC1196
49that provides an interface to
50.Xr finger 1
51at several network sites.
52It is supposed to return a friendly,
53human-oriented status report on either the system at the moment
54or a particular person in depth.
55There is no required format and the
56protocol consists mostly of specifying a single
57.Dq "command line" ,
58thus,
59.Nm
60can also be used to implement other protocols in conjunction with the
61.Fl p
62flag.
63.Pp
64The
65.Nm
66utility is started by
67.Xr inetd 8 ,
68which listens for
69.Tn TCP
70requests at port 79.
71Once connected it reads a single command line
72terminated by a
73.Aq Tn CRLF
74which is passed to
75.Xr finger 1 .
76The
77.Nm
78utility closes its connections as soon as the output is finished.
79.Pp
80If the line is null (i.e., just a
81.Aq Tn CRLF
82is sent) then
83.Xr finger 1
84returns a
85.Dq default
86report that lists all people logged into
87the system at that moment.
88.Pp
89If a user name is specified (e.g.,\&
90.Pf eric Aq Tn CRLF )
91then the
92response lists more extended information for only that particular user,
93whether logged in or not.
94Allowable
95.Dq names
96in the command line include both
97.Dq login names
98and
99.Dq user names .
100If a name is ambiguous, all possible derivations are returned.
101.Pp
102The following options may be passed to
103.Nm
104as server program arguments in
105.Pa /etc/inetd.conf :
106.Bl -tag -width indent
107.It Fl d
108Enable debugging mode.
109In debugging mode,
110.Nm
111will not attempt any network-related operations on
112.Va stdin ,
113and it will print the full
114.Nm finger
115command line
116to
117.Va stderr
118before executing it.
119.It Fl k
120Suppress login information.
121See the description of the
122.Fl k
123option in
124.Xr finger 1
125for details.
126.It Fl s
127Enable secure mode.
128Queries without a user name are rejected and
129forwarding of queries to other remote hosts is denied.
130.It Fl l
131Enable logging.
132The name of the host originating the query is reported via
133.Xr syslog 3
134at LOG_NOTICE priority.
135.It Fl p
136Use an alternate program as the local information provider.
137The default local program
138executed by
139.Nm
140is
141.Xr finger 1 .
142By specifying a customized local server,
143this option allows a system manager
144to have more control over what information is
145provided to remote sites.
146If
147.Fl p
148is specified,
149.Nm
150will also set the environment variable
151.Ev FINGERD_REMOTE_HOST
152to the name of the host making the request.
153.El
154.Sh SEE ALSO
155.Xr finger 1 ,
156.Xr inetd 8
157.Sh HISTORY
158The
159.Nm
160utility appeared in
161.Bx 4.3 .
162