ARCHIVED: In Unix, what is the finger command?
In Unix, finger
is a program you can use to
find information about computer users. It usually lists the login
name, the full name, and possibly other details about the user you are
fingering. These details may include the office location and phone
number (if known), login time, idle time, time mail was last read, and
the user's plan and project files. The information listed varies, and
you may not be able to get any information from some sites.
In some cases, you may be able to use the finger
command
to verify an address or find more information for someone at another
institution about whom you already have some information. The
finger
command is available on most Unix
systems. It differs from the whois command, which you can
use simply to find the email address of someone at another
institution.
To use finger
, at your Unix prompt, enter:
finger username@node.domain
Replace node.domain
with the appropriate machine and
domain address, and username
with the name of the person
or the person's username, for example:
finger dvader@mentor.cc.purdue.edu
You will get output similar to the following:
[mentor.cc.purdue.edu] Login name: dvader In real life: Darth Vader Directory: /home/mentor/d/dvader Shell: /bin/csh Last login Tue Jul 17 15:21 on ttyQ7 from expert.cc.purdue.edu Unread mail since Wed Jul 18 13:00:54 2001
This is only one of many formats the output may take; for instance, you may see something more like one of the following:
finger skywalker@moe.cc.emory.edu Luke Skywalker (skywalke) is not presently logged in. Last seen at moe on Mon Jul 23 05:13:06 2001 from larry.cc.emory.edu Mail forwarded to skywalke@mail.service.emory.edu. Project: Save the galaxy! Plan: *Star-hopping Friday night with Han *Appointment with Yoda Monday at 3:15pm
finger hsolo@tiger.depauw.edu [tiger.depauw.edu] Login name: HSOLO In real life: HAN SOLO Is not logged in. No Plan.
If you are trying to get information from a site that does not allow remote fingering (that is, if you must be logged into that site in order to finger users on that system), you will get results similar to this:
finger yoda@law.weblaw.com [law.weblaw.com] connect: Connection refused
Some sites use a period ( . ) instead of an underscore ( _ ) in the full name (for example, Darth.Vader), or require an extra period to specify middle initials (Darth.E.Vader).
For more information about finger
and whois
,
at your Unix prompt, enter one of the following:
man finger man whois
Note: At Indiana University, the finger
command may be available on some individual systems, but you can't
finger
someone at the indiana.edu
domain.
To find IU email addresses, use the IU
Address Book.
At Indiana University, for personal or departmental Linux or Unix systems support, see Get help for Linux or Unix at IU.
This is document aasp in the Knowledge Base.
Last modified on 2018-01-18 08:52:18.