finger command stopped working

[Fred Martin_1]

For some reason, the finger command is not functioning. It returns the three question marks for any search string I use, even those that I know should return a hit.

Where do I begin, to troubleshoot?

Aside from normal administration that would include editing passwd, group and alias files, the only other thing done lately (that I know of) was the recent telnetd patch, and a reboot.

Any suggestions welcome,
Fred

[harry d brown jr · Accepted solution]

One of these files is probably toast:

/etc/utmp ------- who file
/var/adm/wtmp ----last login file

Most likely wtmp. Do a last,and who to see if you get any garbage.

[Sridhar Bhaskarla]

Check the permissions on /etc/utmp.

It should be 644 for the finger to work.

What is the specific error you are getting?.

-Sri

[A. Clay Stephenson]

If the wtmp and utmp files are ok. Then I would check to see that pwgrd is running - if this is an 11x box. Pwgrd can also fail or give very strange results if if does have room to write files. Do a bdf and check for full filesystems.

[Alan Riggs]

And, of course, turn off finger anyway if it is not expressly required in your environment.

[Fred Martin_1]

Checked last and who commands, output looked normal. Checked file permissions as suggested, they looked OK. I'm running HP-UX 10.20.

When all that looked good, I started messing with the finger command, and found that it actually did work on some queries but not others.

So, I looked closer at the passwd file, and...

DOH!

One passwd entry had the UID field removed. Finger worked for all the names above that line, and failed for all the entries below it.

Some system administrator (ahem; that would be me) had edited the file manually to disable an account quickly, and removed the field by accident.

Thanks for your help, folks.

[A. Clay Stephenson]

Bad boy Fred.

Rule 1) Make a copy of the passwd file before you edit. Rule 2) Always be logged in as root in at least two sessions so that you can get yourself out of trouble as fast as you got yourself in. Rule 3) ALWAYS run pwck after you edit to alert you to errors.

Glad you fixed it, Clay

[Darrell Allen]

I hate it when that happens!

Looks like another good reason to use pwck on a regular basis.

Darrell