FINGERD(8) | System Manager's Manual | FINGERD(8) |
fingerd
— remote
user information server
fingerd |
[-8ghlmpSsu ] [-P
filename] |
fingerd
is a simple protocol based on RFC
1288 that provides an interface to the
finger(1) program 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
is started by
inetd(8), which listens for TCP
requests at port 79. Once handed a connection,
fingerd
reads a single command line terminated by a
⟨CRLF⟩ which it then passes 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(1) 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:
-8
-g
-h
-l
-m
-m
option is supplied.-P
filenamefingerd
is
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.-p
-S
-s
-u
The fingerd
command appeared in
4.3BSD.
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.
September 12, 2002 | NetBSD 10.99 |