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 informations (e.g. uptime, operat­
     ing system name and release) about the system the 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 re­
     jected.

     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 al­
     lowed.  Useful behind firewalls, but probably not wise for security and
     resource reasons.

     The -p option allows specification of an alternate location for 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 fingerd should be specified in /etc/inetd.conf.

     The finger protocol consists mostly of specifying command arguments.  The
     inetd(8) ``super-server'' runs fingerd for TCP requests received on port
     79.  Once connected 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 deriva­
     tions 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

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