topic Re: finger trouble in Operating System - HP-UX

finger trouble

Simon Page_1 — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 10:21:41 GMT

The finger command is returning "In real life: ???" for a lot (not all) of the NIS users. Any ideas?

Re: finger trouble

Rick Garland — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 10:23:39 GMT

Does the NIS passwd file have this information?

Re: finger trouble

Pete Randall — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 10:24:57 GMT

I would guess that that information was never supplied. Probably the original password file, from which the NIS database was created had users in it with no GECOS information, paricularly the Real Name.

Pete

Re: finger trouble

Alan Meyer_4 — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 10:27:19 GMT

What does NIS have for user information in it's database?

Re: finger trouble

Simon Page_1 — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 10:28:32 GMT

All the info is in the password file. finger used to work a few days ago - it's just stopped working for most users.

Re: finger trouble

Alan Meyer_4 — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 10:34:43 GMT

Can we assume that all the other finger information displays correctly and only the "In Real Life" field displays as ???

Re: finger trouble

Rick Garland — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 10:37:55 GMT

The /usr/bin/chfn command will change the way the name is displayed when 'finger' is used.

Is this command is uise somewhere, or by someone?

Re: finger trouble

Simon Page_1 — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 10:42:03 GMT

There's no info present when the finger displays "In real life: ???".
Please see attached file for a couple of examples.

Re: finger trouble

Alan Meyer_4 — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 10:48:07 GMT

The only time I get that type of response is when the user does not exist in the NIS database or the local passwd file.

Re: finger trouble

Alan Meyer_4 — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 10:57:01 GMT

I also get that response if the NIS/passwd record is incomplete or in the incorrect format

Re: finger trouble

Simon Page_1 — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 10:58:37 GMT

Hi Alan, yes I agree with your comments, they would be my thoughts too! That's why this one's got me stumped.

Re: finger trouble

Alan Meyer_4 — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 11:00:33 GMT

what does ypwhich yield?

Can we assume that the users can login successfully?

Re: finger trouble

Rick Garland — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 11:02:30 GMT

Can you run the pwck (passwd check) against the file? Any discrepencies show up on output?

Re: finger trouble

Simon Page_1 — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 11:05:03 GMT

what does ypwhich yield? The name of the NIS master

Can we assume that the users can login successfully? - YES, everything (seemingly!) works fine except for finger

Re: finger trouble

Simon Page_1 — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 11:12:45 GMT

Hi Rick, you asked "Can you run the pwck (passwd check) against the file? Any discrepencies show up on output?" - As the NIS passwd file is quite big I created a subset file with just the 2 users (i.e the 2 users in the attachment file I sent) - pwck doesn't report any problems!

Re: finger trouble

Rick Garland — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 11:18:56 GMT

An idea.

When you run the finger command and get the "In Real Life ???", I can reproduce that by using a non-existent acct. If I remove the GECOS info from a valid acct and run finger, the "In Real Life" field does not even show. By chance is the finger looking at the wrong passwd file? The local passwd file does not have this acct so it shows the ??? while the NIS passwd is OK?

Re: finger trouble

Alan Meyer_4 — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 11:25:27 GMT

I agree with something along thouse lines Rick, but how does finger look at the local passwd file only?

I tried to remove the "+" from the end and it still resolves NIS information with finger... From a cache maybe?

Re: finger trouble

Simon Page_1 — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 11:26:36 GMT

Hi Rick, you have a good point there.
How does finger determine where it's information is coming from?

Re: finger trouble

Rick Garland — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 11:26:58 GMT

Do the ypmatch command on the account mcarte71. What is output?

Is mcarte71 in the local passwd file or the NIS passwd?

Is the mcastan7 acct in the local passwd file?

Re: finger trouble

Simon Page_1 — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 11:37:15 GMT

Hi Rick

Do the ypmatch command on the account mcarte71. What is output?

mcarte71:XecnEYx3R/08w:935724:935724:Mark Carter:/dtv7654/h909/u/mcarte71:/bin/csh

Is mcarte71 in the local passwd file or the NIS passwd?
Only in NIS passwd

Is the mcastan7 acct in the local passwd file? NO

[See attached for a typical /etc/passwd file]