chfn(1)chfn(1)Namechfn - change system finger entry
Syntaxchfn [ loginname ]
Description
The command is used to change information about users. This informa‐
tion is used by the program, among others. It consists of the user's
real name, office room number, office phone number, and home phone num‐
ber. The command prompts the user for each field. Included in the
prompt is a default value, which is enclosed between brackets. To
accept the default value, press Return. To enter a blank field, type
the word `none'. This is an example:
% chfn
Changing finger information for doe
Name [John Doe]:
Office number [ABC-1/K0]: DEF-2/K1
Office Phone []: 1863
Home Phone [5771546]: none
The command allows phone numbers to be entered with or without hyphens.
No entries may contain colons, commas, or control characters.
It is a good idea to run after running to make sure everything is the
way you want it.
The optional argument loginname is used to change another person's fin‐
ger information. This can only be done by the superuser.
Restrictions
The encoding of the office and extension information is installation
dependent.
Because two users may try to write the 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, sleeps for a while and
then tries to write to the file again.
See Also
chsh(1), finger(1), passwd(1), passwd(5yp)chfn(1)