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1 perry 1 ----
2 __NAME__
3
4
5 in.fingerd - remote user information server
6 __SYNOPSIS__
7
8
9 in.fingerd [[-wulf] [[-pL path] [[-t timeout]
10 __DESCRIPTION__
11
12
13 Fingerd is a simple daemon based on ''RFC1196'' that
14 provides an interface to the ``finger'' program at most
15 network sites. The program is supposed to return a friendly,
16 human-oriented status report on either the system at the
17 moment or a par- ticular person in depth.
18
19
20 If the -w option is given, remote users will get an addi- tional ``Welcome to ...'' banner which also shows some informations (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.
21
22
23 If the -u option is given, requests of the form ``finger
24 @host'' are rejected.
25
26
27 If the -l option is given, information about requests made
28 is logged. This option probably violates users' privacy and
29 should not be used on multiuser boxes.
30
31
32 If the -f option is given, finger forwarding
33 (user@host1@host2) is allowed. Useful behind firewalls, but
34 probably not wise for security and resource
35 reasons.
36
37
38 The -p option allows specification of an alternate location
39 for in.fingerd to find the ``finger'' program. The -L option
40 is equivalent.
41
42
43 The -t option specifies the time to wait for a request
44 before closing the connection. A value of 0 waits forever.
45 The default is 60 seconds.
46
47
48 Options to in.fingerd should be specified in
49 /etc/inetd.conf.
50
51
52 The finger protocol consists mostly of specifying command
53 arguments. The inetd(8) ``super-server'' runs
54 in.fingerd for TCP requests received on port
55 79. Once connected in.fingerd reads a single command line
56 terminated by a CRLF which is passed to
57 finger(1). It closes its connec- tions as soon as
58 all output is finished.
59
60
61 If the line is empty (i.e. just a CRLF is
62 sent) then finger returns a ``default'' report that
63 lists all people logged into the system at that moment. This
64 feature is blocked by the -u option.
65
66
67 If a user name is specified (e.g. eric CRLF )
68 then the response lists more extended information for only
69 that par- ticular user, whether logged in or not. Allowable
70 ``names'' in the command line include both ``login names''
71 and ``user names''. If a name is ambiguous, all possible
72 derivations are returned.
73 __SEE ALSO__
74
75
76 finger(1), inetd(8)
77 __RESTRICTIONS__
78
79
80 Connecting directly to the server from a TIP
81 or an equally narrow-minded TELNET -protocol
82 user program can result in meaningless attempts at option
83 negotiation being sent to the server, which will foul up the
84 command line interpretation.
85 __HISTORY__
86
87
88 The finger daemon appeared in 4.3 BSD
89 .
90
91
92 Linux !NetKit (0.17) August 29, 1996 1
93 ----
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