Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!uokmax!rmtodd
From: rmtodd@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu (Richard Michael Todd)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.aux
Subject: Re: What's wrong with "finger?"
Message-ID: <1990Dec6.212014.5031@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu>
Date: 6 Dec 90 21:20:14 GMT
References: <1990Dec6.045844.2925@panix.uucp>
Organization: Engineering Computer Network, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK
Lines: 20

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..."