NAME
fingerd —
remote user information
server
SYNOPSIS
fingerd |
[-s] [-l]
[-p filename] |
DESCRIPTION
Fingerd is a simple protocol based on
RFC1196 that provides an interface to the Name and
Finger programs at several network sites. The program is supposed to return a
friendly, human-oriented status report on either the system at the moment or a
particular person in depth. There is no required format and the protocol
consists mostly of specifying a single “command line”.
Fingerd listens for TCP requests at port
79. Once connected it reads a single command line terminated by a
⟨CRLF⟩ which is passed to
finger(1). Fingerd closes its connections as
soon as the output is finished.
If the line is null (i.e. just a ⟨CRLF⟩ is sent) then finger returns a “default” report that lists all people logged into the system at that moment.
If a user name is specified (e.g. eric⟨CRLF⟩) then the response lists more extended information for only that particular user, whether logged in or not. Allowable “names” in the command line include both “login names” and “user names”. If a name is ambiguous, all possible derivations are returned.
The following options may be passed to
fingerd as server program arguments in
/etc/inetd.conf:
-s- Enable secure mode. Queries without a user name are rejected and forwarding of queries to other remote hosts is denied.
-l- Enable logging. The name of the host originating the query is reported via syslog(3) at LOG_NOTICE priority.
-p- Use an alternate program as the local information provider. The default
local program executed by
fingerdis finger(1). By specifying a customized local server, this option allows a system manager to have more control over what information is provided to remote sites.
SEE ALSO
BUGS
Connecting directly to the server from a TIP or an equally
narrow-minded TELNET-protocol user program can result in meaningless
attempts at option negotiation being sent to the server, which will foul up
the command line interpretation. Fingerd should be
taught to filter out IAC´s and perhaps even respond negatively (IAC
WON'T) to all option commands received.
HISTORY
The fingerd command appeared in
4.3BSD.