WYNTK: UNIX System Admininistrator

Some users have a .plan file to tell others what they’re up to.

Among other things, the finger command looks for a file in your home directory called .plan. You can use this file to tell people more about yourself—for example, to tell them what your responsibilities are, what your office extension is, and to amuse them with your witticisms.

If you don’t have a .plan file, then all finger reports is “No Plan.” But if you create a file called .plan in your home directory, then finger will find and print that file. For example, I created a .plan file reading:

              Hours: 9:30 to 6PM EST (approx.)
Phone extension: x466
Off-hours phone number: 555-5466

In addition, finger looks in a .project file for a single line describing your current project. For example, I might have a .project file containing this line:

What Users Need to know about UNIX Sysadm

(Any additional lines in .project are ignored.)

The .plan and .project files need to be readable by all users, and your home directory must be executable for all users. So run the following commands:

% chmod a+r .plan .project
% chmod a+x .

When someone runs finger on me now, they’ll see:

Login name: lmui In real life: Linda Mui
Directory: /home/lmui Shell: /bin/tcsh
On since Oct 21 09:58:38 on ttyq7 from opal:0.0
Mail last read Fri Oct 21 10:52:41 1994
Project: What Users Need to know about UNIX Sysadm
Plan:
Hours:  9:30 to 6PM EST (approximately)
Phone extension: x466
Off-hours phone number: 555-5466

You should be careful about what sort of information ...