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