chfn1
Change your finger information
Usage
chfn [-f
full-name]
[-o
office]
[-p
office-phone]
[-h
home-phone]
[-u]
[-V]
[{username | UID}]
Overview
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(1), lchfn(1) 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 and exit. (Short option
-Vis used since version 2.39; older versions used the now-deprecated-v).
Config file items
chfn reads the /etc/login.defs configuration file (see login.defs(5)). Note that the configuration file could be distributed with another package (e.g., shadow-utils). The following configuration items are relevant for chfn:
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.
Releases
19 releases since Debian 1.1 (Buzz); the text changed 16 times.
--full-name since Debian 7 (Wheezy);
--help since Debian 7 (Wheezy);
--home-phone since Debian 7 (Wheezy);
--office since Arch Linux 2026-11-01;
--office-phone since Arch Linux 2026-11-01;
--version since Arch Linux 2026-11-01;
-V since Arch Linux 2026-11-01;
-f since Debian 7 (Wheezy);
-h since Debian 7 (Wheezy);
-o since Debian 7 (Wheezy);
-p since Arch Linux 2026-11-01;
-u since Debian 7 (Wheezy).
--other until Debian 13 (Trixie);
--room until Debian 13 (Trixie);
--root until Debian 13 (Trixie);
--work-phone until Debian 13 (Trixie);
-R until Debian 13 (Trixie);
-r until Debian 13 (Trixie);
-v until Debian 1.2 (Rex);
-w until Debian 13 (Trixie).