.\" Copyright (c) 2000 Mark Knight <markk@knigma.org>
.\" All rights reserved.
.\"
.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
.\" are met:
.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
.\"
.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
.\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
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.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
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.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
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.\" $FreeBSD$
.\"
.Dd August 16, 2000
.Dt FINGER.CONF 5
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm finger.conf
.Nd
.Xr finger 1
alias configuration file
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The optional
.Nm
file is used to provide aliases that can be fingered by local
and network users.
This may be useful where a user's login name is not the same
as their preferred mail address, or for providing virtual login names
than can be fingered.
.Pp
Lines beginning with ``#'' are comments.
Other lines must consist of an
alias name and a target name separated by a colon.
A target name should be either a user, a forward
reference to another alias or the path of a world readable file.
.Pp
Where an alias points to a file, the contents of that file will be displayed
when the alias is fingered.
.Sh FILES
.Bl -tag -width /etc/finger.conf -compact
.It Pa /etc/finger.conf
.Xr finger 1
alias definition data base
.El
.Sh EXAMPLES
.Bd -literal
# /etc/finger.conf alias definition file
#
# Format alias:(user|alias)
#
# Individual aliases
#
markk:mkn
john.smith:dev329
john:dev329
sue:/etc/finger/sue.txt
#
# Network status message
#
status:/usr/local/etc/status.txt
#
# Administrative redirects
#
root:admin
postmaster:admin
abuse:admin
#
# For the time being, 'sod' is sysadmin.
#
admin:sod
.Ed
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr finger 1
.Sh HISTORY
Support for the
.Nm
file was submitted by Mark Knight <markk@knigma.org> and first appeared in
.Fx 4.2 .