# chfn

## NAME



           chfn - change your finger information
    


## SYNOPSIS



           **chfn**[**-f** _full-name_] [**-o** _office_] [**-p** _office-phone_] [**-h** _home-phone_]
           [**-u**] [**-V**] [_username_]
    


## DESCRIPTION



           **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.
    


## OPTIONS



           **-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 and exit. (Short option **-V** is used since
               version 2.39; older versions used the now-deprecated **-v**).
    


## CONFIG FILE ITEMS



           **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.
    


## EXIT STATUS



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


## AVAILABILITY



           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/>. This page is
           part of the _util-linux_ (a random collection of Linux utilities)
           project. Information about the project can be found at 
           ⟨https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/⟩. If you have a
           bug report for this manual page, send it to
           util-linux@vger.kernel.org. This page was obtained from the
           project's upstream Git repository
           ⟨git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/utils/util-linux/util-linux.git⟩ on
           2025-08-11. (At that time, the date of the most recent commit that
           was found in the repository was 2025-08-05.) If you discover any
           rendering problems in this HTML version of the page, or you
           believe there is a better or more up-to-date source for the page,
           or you have corrections or improvements to the information in this
           COLOPHON (which is _not_ part of the original manual page), send a
           mail to man-pages@man7.org
    
    util-linux 2.42-start-521-ec46  2025-08-09                        _CHFN_(1)
    


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