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'\" t
.\" Title: chfn
.\" Author: Julianne Frances Haugh
.\" Generator: DocBook XSL Stylesheets v1.76.1 <http://docbook.sf.net/>
.\" Date: 05/25/2012
.\" Manual: User Commands
.\" Source: shadow-utils 4.1.5.1
.\" Language: English
.\"
.TH "CHFN" "1" "05/25/2012" "shadow\-utils 4\&.1\&.5\&.1" "User Commands"
.\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
.\" * Define some portability stuff
.\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
.\" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
.\" http://bugs.debian.org/507673
.\" http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/groff/2009-02/msg00013.html
.\" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
.ie \n(.g .ds Aq \(aq
.el .ds Aq '
.\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
.\" * set default formatting
.\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
.\" disable hyphenation
.nh
.\" disable justification (adjust text to left margin only)
.ad l
.\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
.\" * MAIN CONTENT STARTS HERE *
.\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
.SH "NAME"
chfn \- change real user name and information
.SH "SYNOPSIS"
.HP \w'\fBchfn\fR\ 'u
\fBchfn\fR [\fIoptions\fR] [\fILOGIN\fR]
.SH "DESCRIPTION"
.PP
The
\fBchfn\fR
command changes user fullname, office room number, office phone number, and home phone number information for a user\*(Aqs account\&. This information is typically printed by
\fBfinger\fR(1)
and similar programs\&. A normal user may only change the fields for her own account, subject to the restrictions in
/etc/login\&.defs\&. (The default configuration is to prevent users from changing their fullname\&.) The superuser may change any field for any account\&. Additionally, only the superuser may use the
\fB\-o\fR
option to change the undefined portions of the GECOS field\&.
.PP
These fields must not contain any colons\&. Except for the
\fIother\fR
field, they should not contain any comma or equal sign\&. It is also recommended to avoid non\-US\-ASCII characters, but this is only enforced for the phone numbers\&. The
\fIother\fR
field is used to store accounting information used by other applications\&.
.SH "OPTIONS"
.PP
The options which apply to the
\fBchfn\fR
command are:
.PP
\fB\-f\fR, \fB\-\-full\-name\fR \fIFULL_NAME\fR
.RS 4
Change the user\*(Aqs full name\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-h\fR, \fB\-\-home\-phone\fR \fIHOME_PHONE\fR
.RS 4
Change the user\*(Aqs home phone number\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-o\fR, \fB\-\-other\fR \fIOTHER\fR
.RS 4
Change the user\*(Aqs other GECOS information\&. This field is used to store accounting information used by other applications, and can be changed only by a superuser\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-r\fR, \fB\-\-room\fR \fIROOM_NUMBER\fR
.RS 4
Change the user\*(Aqs room number\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-R\fR, \fB\-\-root\fR \fICHROOT_DIR\fR
.RS 4
Apply changes in the
\fICHROOT_DIR\fR
directory and use the configuration files from the
\fICHROOT_DIR\fR
directory\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-u\fR, \fB\-\-help\fR
.RS 4
Display help message and exit\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-w\fR, \fB\-\-work\-phone\fR \fIWORK_PHONE\fR
.RS 4
Change the user\*(Aqs office phone number\&.
.RE
.PP
If none of the options are selected,
\fBchfn\fR
operates in an interactive fashion, prompting the user with the current values for all of the fields\&. Enter the new value to change the field, or leave the line blank to use the current value\&. The current value is displayed between a pair of
\fB[ ]\fR
marks\&. Without options,
\fBchfn\fR
prompts for the current user account\&.
.SH "CONFIGURATION"
.PP
The following configuration variables in
/etc/login\&.defs
change the behavior of this tool:
.PP
\fBCHFN_AUTH\fR (boolean)
.RS 4
If
\fIyes\fR, the
\fBchfn\fR
program will require authentication before making any changes, unless run by the superuser\&.
.RE
.PP
\fBCHFN_RESTRICT\fR (string)
.RS 4
This parameter specifies which values in the
\fIgecos\fR
field of the
/etc/passwd
file may be changed by regular users using the
\fBchfn\fR
program\&. It can be any combination of letters
\fIf\fR,
\fIr\fR,
\fIw\fR,
\fIh\fR, for Full name, Room number, Work phone, and Home phone, respectively\&. For backward compatibility,
\fIyes\fR
is equivalent to
\fIrwh\fR
and
\fIno\fR
is equivalent to
\fIfrwh\fR\&. If not specified, only the superuser can make any changes\&. The most restrictive setting is better achieved by not installing
\fBchfn\fR
SUID\&.
.RE
.PP
\fBLOGIN_STRING\fR (string)
.RS 4
The string used for prompting a password\&. The default is to use "Password: ", or a translation of that string\&. If you set this variable, the prompt will not be translated\&.
.sp
If the string contains
\fI%s\fR, this will be replaced by the user\*(Aqs name\&.
.RE
.SH "FILES"
.PP
/etc/login\&.defs
.RS 4
Shadow password suite configuration\&.
.RE
.PP
/etc/passwd
.RS 4
User account information\&.
.RE
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.PP
\fBchsh\fR(1),
\fBlogin.defs\fR(5),
\fBpasswd\fR(5)\&.
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