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GNU Finger

2.1 How Finger Works

GNU Finger is the collective name for a set of programs:

`finger'

Parses the command line and connects to the finger server, `in.fingerd', on the finger server. Returns the output from the server. finger connects to in.fingerd on the host specified in the command line. This is the only program you need to know anything about if you're a regular user. You should refer to this program as the finger client to avoid possible confusion.

`fingerd'

Regularly connects to in.cfingerd on the clients specified in the `fingerdir/clients' file, to obtain finger data. This client data is saved in the file `fingerdir/userdata'. fingerd should run on the host specified in the `fingerdir/serverhost' file. fingerd should be started at boot time.

`in.fingerd'

Responds to finger connections through inetd. Should be attached to the `finger' service via `/etc/inetd.conf'. in.fingerd behaves somewhat differently depending on what host it runs on: on the server host it reads the `fingerdir/userdata' database, on all other hosts it forwards all requests (unless `.local' is the target) to in.fingerd on the host specified in `fingerdir/serverhost'.

in.fingerd reads the `fingerdir/userdata' database, various system files, and makes SMTP connections to the host specified in the `fingerdir/mailhost' file.

`in.cfingerd'

This is the program that responds to call-ins from fingerd by sampling the status on the client and forwarding it to fingerd. It should be configured to respond to the `cfinger' service specified in the `clients' configuration file, or port 2003 if nothing else is specified.