Forums General Discussion Finger

whatz use of that command?

/finger [Nick|Address] I think trys to look up and resolve that Address or nickname.

-Andy

si itz same as /dns?

Well that I'm not too sure of it's basically looking up information on an address. With DNS you can look up any address and I'm not too sure you can lookup an URL with the FINGER command as I've never tried, but your more than welcome to try it.

Take it easy,

-Andy

It's not really an IRC command. It's an old UNIX command that lists info about other users on a multi user system.

thanks =)

Yeah, it would list all kinds of information about a person rather than just dns. It's more like whois than dns, but still different. Not really sure how it works in mIRC... I only ever used in on UNIX back in the late 80s/early 90s.

See the Name/Finger Protocol RFC, http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc742.html

Bascially it just connects to a computer running a finger server and asks for information about the user(s).

if it is obsolete so much why does mIRC uses it ?

to collective: tnx for link

obsolete != fails to work

Also, mIRC should support all things that IRC supports, and IRC supports that command.

It is not an IRC command, and has nothing to do with IRC in fact..

But, is it supported on IRC?

Like Sat said, it's not an IRC command. It has existed since before IRC and no data from the /finger command ever reaches the IRC server. Infact, you don't even need to be on an IRC server to use it.

Yes, I do know it was around prior to IRC and that it can be used off the server. I was just wondering if it was being sent through the server in the case of IRC. If not and the "IRC" command of it is really just running it without touching the server, then mIRC could remove it if it doesn't give any useful information. If, on the other hand, the command does go through IRC if issued directly on IRC (on telnet, for example), then mIRC should keep it. I really don't know if the command functions differently as a command run on IRC or if it's the same as if you run it from somewhere else.

The only thing /finger does differently when connected to a server is that it will accept nicknames (using either the IAL or a /userhost lookup to decide where to send the finger request).

currently mIRC responds to the ctcp FINGER request with data from Options -> Connect dialog; the email address and "realname" then your Idle time, then whatever message you have put into the Options -> IRC -> Messages -> CTCP FINGER

[MikeChat FINGER reply]: leaf grows, flower blooms, rain falls, ducklings (I-got@no.mail) Idle 13 seconds (Whoa, hey you really want to do that? In some countries you could get your hand cut off for even trying that.)

so it is Not obsolete, just not often used for the original intent.

IRC started as a way for students and professional people to discuss their current project with other like minded people. The FINGER protocol allowed you to put in your contact, project and other details about your project so you didn't need to repeat it to anyone who might be interested in what you were doing.

With the general public having access to IRC, this way of sharing personal details became a problem due to miscreants abusing the information.

You are talking about CTCP FINGER, while the rest of this thread was about the finger protocol. They're quite different:

The finger protocol as used by mIRC's /finger command and finger server (alt+o > Other > Finger) is an old way of getting information (real name, current project etc) about a user on a multi-user system and has, as I said earlier, nothing to do with IRC.

CTCP FINGER, on the other hand, is a CTCP command strictly for IRC clients to get information about someone on IRC; its name is indeed based on the finger protocol (since it also allows someone to retrieve information about someone else), but has otherwise nothing to do with it.

Just like the "ping" command line utility has nothing to do with CTCP PING.

I see the difference between the two, in fact many years ago when I started on IRC it was much more prevalent to use it.
Of course most ISPs don't offer the other services that were once common: web space, usenet access, shell access (and probably other things that don't come to mind)