NAME

       in.fingerd — remote user information server

SYNOPSIS

       in.fingerd [-wulf] [-pL path] [-t timeout]

DESCRIPTION

       Fingerd  is  a  simple daemon based on RFC1196 that provides an interface to the “finger” program at most
       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.

       If  the  -w option is given, remote users will get an additional “Welcome to ...” banner which also shows
       some information (e.g. uptime, operating system name and release) about  the  system  the  in.fingerd  is
       running  on.  Some sites may consider this a security risk as it gives out information that may be useful
       to crackers.

       If the -u option is given, requests of the form “finger @host” are rejected.

       If the -l option is given, information about requests made  is  logged.  This  option  probably  violates
       users' privacy and should not be used on multiuser boxes.

       If the -f option is given, finger forwarding (user@host1@host2) is allowed.  Useful behind firewalls, but
       probably not wise for security and resource reasons.

       The  -p option allows specification of an alternate location for in.fingerd to find the “finger” program.
       The -L option is equivalent.

       The -t option specifies the time to wait for a request before closing the connection.  A value of 0 waits
       forever.  The default is 60 seconds.

       Options to in.fingerd should be specified in /etc/inetd.conf.

       The finger protocol consists mostly of specifying command arguments.  The  inetd(8)  “super-server”  runs
       in.fingerd  for  TCP requests received on port 79.  Once connected in.fingerd reads a single command line
       terminated by a ⟨CRLF⟩ which is passed to finger(1).  It closes its connections as soon as all output  is
       finished.

       If  the  line is empty (i.e. just a ⟨CRLF⟩ is sent) then finger returns a “default” report that lists all
       people logged into the system at that moment. This feature is blocked by the -u option.

       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.

SEE ALSO

       finger(1), inetd(8)

RESTRICTIONS

       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.

HISTORY

       The finger daemon appeared in 4.3BSD.

Linux NetKit (0.17)                              August 29, 1996                                      FINGERD(8)