


FINGER(1)	    UNIX Programmer's Manual		FINGER(1)



NAME
     finger - user information lookup program

SYNOPSIS
     finger [ -lmsp ] [user [@host] ...]

DESCRIPTION
     The _f_i_n_g_e_r command has two basic output formats providing
     essentially the same information.

     The -_s option of _f_i_n_g_e_r displays the user's login name, real
     name, terminal name and write status (as a ``*'' after the
     terminal name if write permission is denied), idle time,
     login time, office location and office phone number.

     Idle time is in minutes if it is a single integer, hours and
     minutes if a ``:'' is present, or days if a ``d'' is
     present.  Login time is displayed as month, day, hours and
     minutes, unless more than six months ago, in which case the
     year is displayed rather than the hours and minutes.

     Unknown devices as well as nonexistent idle and login times
     are displayed as single asterisks.

     The -_l option produces a multi-line format displaying all of
     the information described for the -_s option as well as the
     user's home directory, home phone number, login shell, and
     the contents of the files ``._p_l_a_n'' and ``._p_r_o_j_e_c_t'' from
     the user's home directory.

     If idle time is at least a minute and less than a day, it is
     presented in the form ``hh:mm''.  Idle times greater than a
     day are presented as ``d day[s] hh:mm''.

     Phone numbers specified as eleven digits are printed as
     ``+N-NNN-NNN-NNNN''.  Numbers specified as ten or seven
     digits are printed as the appropriate subset of that string.
     Numbers specified as five digits are printed as ``xN-NNNN''.

     If write permission is denied to the device, the phrase
     ``(messages off)'' is appended to the line containing the
     device name.  One entry per user is displayed with the -_l
     option; if a user is logged on multiple times, terminal
     information is repeated once per login.

     The -_p option prevents the -_l option of _f_i_n_g_e_r from display-
     ing the contents of the ``.plan'' and ``.project'' files.

     Note that some fields may be missing, in either format, if
     information is not available for them.





Printed 11/24/99	  May 18, 1989				1






FINGER(1)	    UNIX Programmer's Manual		FINGER(1)



     If no operands are specified, _f_i_n_g_e_r will print an entry for
     each user currently logged into the system.  If no options
     are specified, _f_i_n_g_e_r defaults to the -_l style output if
     operands are provided, otherwise to the -_s style.

     _U_s_e_r is usually a login name; however, matching will also be
     done on the users' real names, unless the -_m option is sup-
     plied.  All name matching performed by _f_i_n_g_e_r is case insen-
     sitive.

     _F_i_n_g_e_r may be used to look up users on a remote machine.
     The format is to specify a _u_s_e_r as ``user@host'', or
     ``@host'', where the default output format for the former is
     the -_l style, and the default output format for the latter
     is the -_s style.  The -_l option is the only option that may
     be passed to a remote machine.

SEE ALSO
     chpass(1), w(1), who(1), getpwent(3)




































Printed 11/24/99	  May 18, 1989				2



