chfn(1) 						      General Commands Manual							   chfn(1)

NAME

       chfn - change user information used by finger command

SYNOPSIS

       [login-name]

       [login-name]

       [login-name]

       [login-name]

DESCRIPTION

       The  command  changes  the  user  information  that is stored in the repository for the current logged-in user or for the user specified by
       login-name (see passwd(1)).

       The information is organized as four comma-separated subfields within the reserved(5th) field of the password file entry.  It consists	of
       the  user's  full  name, location code, office phone number, and home phone number, in that order.  This information is used by the command
       and other programs (see finger(1)).

       prompts you for each subfield.  The prompt includes a default value, which is enclosed in brackets.  Accept the default value  by  pressing
       the Return key.	To enter a blank subfield, type the word

       The  DCE  repository is only available if Integrated Login has been configured; see auth.adm(1M).  If Integrated Login has been configured,
       other considerations apply.  A user with appropriate DCE privileges is capable of modifying a  user's  (gecos)  information;  this  is  not
       dependent upon superuser privileges.

       If the repository is not specified (as in [login-name]), the information is changed in the file only.

       Run after running to make sure the information was processed correctly.

   Notes
       The  command  is a hard link to the command.  When is executed, actually the command gets executed with appropriate arguments to change the
       user gecos information in the repository specified in the command line.	If no repository is specified, the gecos information is changed in
       the file.

   Arguments
	      login-name  A login name of a user.

   Options
       The following option is recognized:

	      Specify the repository to which the operation is to be applied.
		     Supported repositories include and

   Subfield Values
	      Up to 1022 printing characters.

				  The  command and other utilities expand an found anywhere in this subfield by substituting the login name for it
				  and shifting the first letter of the login name to uppercase.  does not alter the input

	      Up to 1022 printing characters.

	      Up to 25 printing characters.

				  inserts appropriate hyphens if the value is all digits.

	      Up to 25 printing characters.

				  inserts appropriate hyphens if the value is all digits.

   Security Restrictions
       You must have appropriate privileges to use the optional login-name argument to change another user's information.

EXAMPLES

       The following is a sample run.  The user's input is shown in regular type.

WARNINGS

       The encoding of office and extension information is installation-dependent.

       For historical reasons, the user's name, etc., are stored in the file.  This is an inappropriate place to store the information.

       Because two or more users may try to write the file at the same time, a synchronization method was developed.  prints a	message  that  the
       file is busy.  When this occurs, sleeps for a short time, then tries to write to the file again.

AUTHOR

       was developed by the University of California, Berkeley.

FILES

SEE ALSO

       chsh(1), finger(1), passwd(1), passwd(4).

																	   chfn(1)