Finger

The Finger command displays information about users of a remote host. Finger is a UNIX command (originally BSD Unix). The command format being finger user@host or finger @host. Finger is an interface to the Remote User Information Program (RUIP).

The one-line information provided by the Finger command about a user depends on the implementation of the Finger server and the RUIP at the other end. If a user is not specified, the information will likely be a list of all users currently logged on the host. Connections are established through TCP port 79. The client sends an ASCII command string, ending with <CRLF> (ASCII 13 followed by ASCII 10) and the server replies with one or more ASCII strings, and then the server closes the connection. All information is in ASCII so that it is user-friendly.

The Finger Query specification is as follows (in terms of what the RUIP receives):

{Q1} - {W}{C} or {W}{S}{U}{C} i.e. a straightforward query.
{Q2} - {W}{S}{H}{C} or {U}{H}{C}. This is a request to forward the query to another RUIP.
{U} - username
{H} - @hostname | @hostname{H}
{W} - /W is a query token
{S} - <SP> or <SP>{S}
{C} - <CRLF>. This is a request for a list of all users that are online.

A query of {U}{C} is a request for in-depth user information.

RFC 1288 describes the Finger Information protocol and supercedes RFC 742, RFC 1194 and RFC 1196.

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