Man1 - chfn.1

chfn - change your finger information

chfn [*-f* /full-name/] [*-o* /office/] [*-p* /office-phone/] [*-h* /home-phone/] [*-u*] [*-v*] [/username/]

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.

-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 information and exit.

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.

Returns 0 if operation was successful, 1 if operation failed or command syntax was not valid.

*chsh*(1), *finger*(1), *login.defs*(5), *passwd*(5)

For bug reports, use the issue tracker at https://github.com/karelzak/util-linux/issues.

The chfn command is part of the util-linux package which can be downloaded from Linux Kernel Archive https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.