[comp.unix.aux] What's wrong with "finger?"

alexis@panix.uucp (Alexis Rosen) (12/06/90)

When I finger a user who is logged on, it tells me how long that user has
been on, and on which tty.

However, finger _always_ says "Never logged in" about anyone who isn't
logged in currently.

I don't know much about this, but does finger look through /etc/wtmp? If
not, what does it do, why isn't it working, and how can I fix it?

Thanks,
---
Alexis Rosen
Owner/Sysadmin, PANIX Public Access Unix, NY
{cmcl2,apple}!panix!alexis

rmtodd@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu (Richard Michael Todd) (12/07/90)

alexis@panix.uucp (Alexis Rosen) writes:

>When I finger a user who is logged on, it tells me how long that user has
>been on, and on which tty.

>However, finger _always_ says "Never logged in" about anyone who isn't
>logged in currently.

>I don't know much about this, but does finger look through /etc/wtmp? If
>not, what does it do, why isn't it working, and how can I fix it?

  I looked into this last night.  According to the man-page, it looks like
finger gets the last-logged-in information from /usr/adm/lastlog.  
Unfortunately, /usr/adm/lastlog is a Berzerkely-ism and isn't supported by
System V.  Oops.  :-(.  Short of digging the finger source off uunet or some
such archive site and hacking it to grovel through /etc/wtmp instead, there's
no easy way to fix this.  
-- 
Richard Todd   rmtodd@chinet.chi.il.us  or  rmtodd@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu  
"Bible-punching heavyweight evangelistic boxing kangaroos..."

alexis@panix.uucp (Alexis Rosen) (12/10/90)

I've gotten a surprising amount of mail about this, so here's the answer:

/etc/Login and /etc/login don't write to a certain file in /adm, which
finger looks in. (/adm/something/lastlog?)

I've been told that the fix will likely (but not certainly) be in 2.0.1.

---
Alexis Rosen
Owner/Sysadmin, PANIX Public Access Unix, NY
{cmcl2,apple}!panix!alexis