Binary Cipher
The finger protocol retrieves user-specific information stored in the user log file.
To request user information from a server it must be running the finger protocol. The information is requested by reading a finger URL that contains a username and a domain name in an email style format:
print read finger://username@example.com
The above example retrieves information about the user at username@example.com. The information returned depends on the information provided by the user and the settings of the finger server. Also, the details of the information being returned are up to each server; the examples below only describe typical servers. Many servers can have non-standard behaviors on their finger ports.
For instance, the following information may be returned:
Login: username
Name: Firstname Lastname
Directory: /home/user
Shell: /usr/local/bin/tcsh
Office: City, State +1 555 555 5555
Last login Wed Jul 28 01:10 (PDT) on ttyp0 from some.example.com
No Mail.
No Plan.
Notice that finger reports when the user last logged in from a machine, and whether the user has mail waiting. If the user reads email from this account, finger sometimes reports when mail was received and when the user last retrieved email:
New mail received Sun Sep 26 11:39 1999 (PDT)
Unread since Tue Sep 21 04:45 1999 (PDT)
The finger server can also report the contents of a plan file and a project file if they exist. Users can include any information they want in a plan or project file.
It is also possible to retrieve information about users using their real first name or their last name. Some finger servers require that you capitalize the names exactly as they appear in the login file or in the file used by the online finger server, to retrieve user information. Other finger servers are more liberal about capitalization. A finger server will respond to real name queries by returning all listings that match the query criteria. For instance, if there are several users on a host that have the first name zaphod, then entering the query
print read finger://Zaphod@main.example.com
will retrieve all such users whose first or last name is Zaphod.
Some finger servers return a listing of users when the user name is omitted. For example,
print read finger://main.example.com
retrieves a list of all users who are logged onto the machine, if the finger service installed on the hosting machine allows it.
Some host machines limit finger services for security reasons. They may require a valid username and only return information regarding that user. If you finger such a server without providing user information, the server will report that it requires specific user information.
If a system does not support the finger protocol, REBOL reports an access error:
print read finger://host.dom
connecting to: host.dom
Access Error: Cannot connect to host.dom.
Where: print read finger://host.dom