1CHFN(1) User Commands CHFN(1)
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6 chfn - change your finger information
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9 chfn [-f full-name] [-o office] [-p office-phone] [-h home-phone] [-u]
10 [-v] [username]
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13 chfn is used to change your finger information. This information is
14 stored in the /etc/passwd file, and is displayed by the finger program.
15 The Linux finger command will display four pieces of information that
16 can be changed by chfn: your real name, your work room and phone, and
17 your home phone.
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19 Any of the four pieces of information can be specified on the command
20 line. If no information is given on the command line, chfn enters
21 interactive mode.
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23 In interactive mode, chfn will prompt for each field. At a prompt, you
24 can enter the new information, or just press return to leave the field
25 unchanged. Enter the keyword "none" to make the field blank.
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27 chfn supports non-local entries (kerberos, LDAP, etc.) if linked with
28 libuser, otherwise use ypchfn(1), lchfn(1) or any other implementation
29 for non-local entries.
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32 -f, --full-name full-name
33 Specify your real name.
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35 -o, --office office
36 Specify your office room number.
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38 -p, --office-phone office-phone
39 Specify your office phone number.
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41 -h, --home-phone home-phone
42 Specify your home phone number.
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44 -h, --help
45 Display help text and exit.
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47 -V, --version
48 Print version and exit.
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51 chfn reads the /etc/login.defs configuration file (see login.defs(5)).
52 Note that the configuration file could be distributed with another
53 package (e.g., shadow-utils). The following configuration items are
54 relevant for chfn:
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56 CHFN_RESTRICT string
57 Indicate which fields are changeable by chfn.
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59 The boolean setting "yes" means that only the Office, Office Phone
60 and Home Phone fields are changeable, and boolean setting "no"
61 means that also the Full Name is changeable.
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63 Another way to specify changeable fields is by abbreviations: f =
64 Full Name, r = Office (room), w = Office (work) Phone, h = Home
65 Phone. For example, CHFN_RESTRICT "wh" allows changing work and
66 home phone numbers.
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68 If CHFN_RESTRICT is undefined, then all finger information is
69 read-only. This is the default.
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72 Returns 0 if operation was successful, 1 if operation failed or command
73 syntax was not valid.
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76 Salvatore Valente <svalente@mit.edu>
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79 chsh(1), finger(1), login.defs(5), passwd(5)
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82 For bug reports, use the issue tracker at
83 https://github.com/util-linux/util-linux/issues.
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86 The chfn command is part of the util-linux package which can be
87 downloaded from Linux Kernel Archive
88 <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>.
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92util-linux 2.38 2022-02-17 CHFN(1)