| FINGERD(8) | System Manager's Manual | FINGERD(8) | 
fingerd —
| fingerd | [ -8ghlmpSsu] [-Pfilename] | 
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-ufingerd command appeared in
  4.3BSD.
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 10.0 |