Cfingerd text rules
cfingerd offers different commands that can be placed in text files to display corresponding information. Each command used with cfingerd in text files begins with a dollar-sign (or a "$"). This usually indicates to cfingerd that when it's displaying a file, it issues the command given directly after that character and inserts its output.
If you want to display a raw "$" sign, simply put two "$" signs together, or "$$".
Text commands are only parsed if ALLOW_LINE_PARSING is enabled in /etc/cfingerd/cfingerd.conf(5). If it is disabled the text files will be sent as is, complete with any single or double dollar signs they may contain.
The following is a list of text commands and what they do. They are checked case insensitively.
$CENTER will display the entire contents of the line. This command must start at the beginning of the line. This is a very common command.
$DATE displays the current system date in the format of MM/DD/YY.
$TIME displays the current system time in the format HH:MM A/PM (timezone).
$IDENT displays the identity of the current person fingering your system.
$COMPILE_DATETIME displays the date and time of which the current issue of cfingerd was compiled on your system.
$VERSION displays the current version of cfingerd.
$EXEC executes the rest of the line as a system command and send the output to the fingering user. Pipes, parameters etc. are available. The $EXEC command must be on a line by itself in order to function properly. The command is executed as nobody.nogroup if used in a system file. If used in a user file (e.g. .plan) the command is executed as that particular user. cfingerd will fork() before executing the new command and will drop all priviledges so this is safe.
This feature is only available if ALLOW_EXECUTION is enabled in cfingerd.conf. The program may prodeuce a maximum of 10MB of output.
If you like the software, and you want to learn more about the software, or want to see a feature added to it that isn't already here, then please write to [email protected]. The project's webpage is at http://www.infodrom.north.de/cfingerd/ .
cfingerd(8), cfingerd.conf(5), finger(1), userlist(1), any of the included docs with the standard cfingerd distribution.