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<div class="SECT1">
<h1 class="SECT1"><a id="BASIC-NETWORK-COMMANDS-FINGER"
name="BASIC-NETWORK-COMMANDS-FINGER">13.4 <tt class="COMMAND">finger</tt></a></h1>

<p><tt class="COMMAND">finger</tt>(1) will retrieve information about the specified user.
You give finger a username or an email address and it will try to contact the necessary
server and retrieve the username, office, telephone number, and other pieces of
information. Here is an example:</p>

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<pre class="SCREEN">
<samp class="PROMPT">%</samp> <kbd class="USERINPUT">finger johnc@idsoftware.com</kbd>
</pre>
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<p><tt class="COMMAND">finger</tt> can return the username, mail status, phone numbers,
and files referred to as &#8220;dot plan&#8221; and &#8220;dot project&#8221;. Of course,
the information returned varies with each <tt class="COMMAND">finger</tt> server. The one
included with Slackware returns the following information by default:</p>

<ul>
<li>
<p>Username</p>
</li>

<li>
<p>Room number</p>
</li>

<li>
<p>Home phone number</p>
</li>

<li>
<p>Work phone number</p>
</li>

<li>
<p>Login status</p>
</li>

<li>
<p>Email status</p>
</li>

<li>
<p>Contents of the <tt class="FILENAME">.plan</tt> file in the user's home directory</p>
</li>

<li>
<p>Contents of the <tt class="FILENAME">.project</tt> file in the user's home
directory</p>
</li>
</ul>

<p>The first four items can be set with the <tt class="COMMAND">chfn</tt> command. It
stores those values in the <tt class="FILENAME">/etc/passwd</tt> file. To change the
information in your <tt class="FILENAME">.plan</tt> or <tt class="FILENAME">.project</tt>
file, just edit them with your favorite text editor. They must reside in your home
directory and must be called <tt class="FILENAME">.plan</tt> and <tt
class="FILENAME">.project</tt>.</p>

<p>Many users <tt class="COMMAND">finger</tt> their own account from a remote machine to
quickly see if they have new email. Or, you can see a user's plan or current project.</p>

<p>Like many commands, <tt class="COMMAND">finger</tt> has options. Check the man page
for more information on what special options you can use.</p>
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