NAME

chfn − change finger entry

SYNOPSIS

chfn [loginname]

DESCRIPTION

Chfn is used to change information about users.  This information is used by the finger program, among others.  It consists of the user’s "real life" name, office room number, office phone number, home phone number, and default login universe.  Chfn prompts the user for each field.  Included in the prompt is a default value, which is enclosed between brackets.  The default value is accepted simply by typing <return>.  To enter a blank field, type the word ’none’.  Below is a sample run:

Name [Biff Studsworth II]:
Room number []: 521E
Office Phone []: 1863
Home Phone [5771546]: none
Universe [ucb]:

Chfn allows phone numbers to be entered with or without hyphens. 

It is a good idea to run finger after running chfn to make sure everything is the way you want it. 

The optional argument loginname is used to change another person’s finger information.  This can only be done by the super-user. 

FILES

/etc/passwd, /etc/ptmp

SEE ALSO

finger(1), passwd(5)

BUGS

For historical reasons, the user’s name, etc are stored in the passwd file.  This is a bad place to store the information. 

Because two users may try to write the passwd file at once, a synchronization method was developed.  On rare occasions, a message that the password file is “busy” will be printed.  In this case, chfn sleeps for a while and then tries to write to the passwd file again. 

4BSD/DYNIX