CHFN(1) User Commands CHFN(1)
NAME
chfn - change your finger information
SYNOPSIS
chfn [-f full-name] [-o office] [-p office-phone] [-h home-phone] [-u]
[-v] [username]
DESCRIPTION
chfn is used to change your finger information. This information is
stored in the /etc/passwd file, and is displayed by the finger program.
The Linux finger command will display four pieces of information that
can be changed by chfn: your real name, your work room and phone, and
your home phone.
Any of the four pieces of information can be specified on the command
line. If no information is given on the command line, chfn enters
interactive mode.
In interactive mode, chfn will prompt for each field. At a prompt, you
can enter the new information, or just press return to leave the field
unchanged. Enter the keyword "none" to make the field blank.
chfn supports non-local entries (kerberos, LDAP, etc.) if linked with
libuser, otherwise use ypchfn, lchfn or any other implementation for
non-local entries.
OPTIONS
-f, --full-name full-name
Specify your real name.
-o, --office office
Specify your office room number.
-p, --office-phone office-phone
Specify your office phone number.
-h, --home-phone home-phone
Specify your home phone number.
-u, --help
Display help text and exit.
-v, --version
Display version information and exit.
CONFIG FILE ITEMS
chfn reads the /etc/login.defs(5) configuration file. Note that the
configuration file could be distributed with another package (e.g.
shadow-utils). The following configuration items are relevant for
chfn(1):
CHFN_RESTRICT string
Indicate which fields are changeable by chfn.
The boolean setting "yes" means that only the Office, Office Phone
and Home Phone fields are changeable, and boolean setting "no"
means that also the Full Name is changeable.
Another way to specify changeable fields is by abbreviations: f =
Full Name, r = Office (room), w = Office (work) Phone, h = Home
Phone. For example, CHFN_RESTRICT "wh" allows changing work and
home phone numbers.
If CHFN_RESTRICT is undefined, then all finger information is read-
only. This is the default.
EXIT STATUS
Returns 0 if operation was successful, 1 if operation failed or command
syntax was not valid.
SEE ALSO
chsh(1), finger(1), login.defs(5), passwd(5)
AUTHOR
Salvatore Valente <svalente AT mit.edu>
AVAILABILITY
The chfn command is part of the util-linux package and is available
from https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.
util-linux November 2015 CHFN(1)