20230518-pull_my_finger.md (2845B)
1 The other day I read a blog post by drkhsh about [using fingerd](https://drkhsh.at/2023-05-15_finger.html){target="_blank" rel="noreferrer"} to display contact details in the terminal. 2 3 This looked pretty cool, and is geeky in a retro Unix way, so of course I had to do it as well. 4 5 You can now finger me remotely! To do so incant 6 ``` 7 finger pyratebeard@pyratebeard.net 8 ``` 9 10 If you don't have `finger` installed you can also use `nc` (netcat) 11 ``` 12 echo pyratebeard | nc pyratebeard.net 79 13 ``` 14 15 While drkhsh's post shows the setup on OpenBSD I am using Devuan so it was a little different. These steps should also work on Debian or any other deb package system. 16 17 I needed to install the `fingerd` daemon, the `finger` command, and `xinetd`, which will run the daemon 18 ``` 19 sudo apt -y install fingerd finger xinetd 20 ``` 21 22 Then created an `xinetd` service config file under /etc/xinetd.d/ 23 ``` 24 service finger 25 { 26 socket_type = stream 27 protocol = tcp 28 wait = no 29 user = nobody 30 server = /usr/sbin/in.fingerd 31 server_args = -u -p /home/pyratebeard/finger 32 disable = no 33 } 34 ``` 35 36 The `server_args` option tells `fingerd` to require a username to finger and use an alternative script, in my case /home/pyratebeard/finger. 37 38 The script I point to is what outputs when you `finger` me 39 ``` 40 #!/bin/sh 41 cat <<EOF 42 __ __ __ 43 .-----.--.--.----.---.-| |_.-----| |--.-----.---.-.----.--| | 44 | _ | | | _| _ | _| -__| _ | -__| _ | _| _ | 45 | __|___ |__| |___._|____|_____|_____|_____|___._|__| |_____| 46 |__| |_____| 47 48 ---------------------------------------------------------------- 49 | 50 web | https://pyratebeard.net 51 | 52 address | root@pyratebeard.net 53 irc | pyrate > unix.chat | pyratebeard > {darkscience,libera,oftc} 54 | 55 pgp id | 0x5113a16d 56 pgp fp | 7a8e 129d be67 9dab aeb3 37c5 c787 7c71 5113 a16d 57 pgp dl | https://pyratebeard.net/pgp.pub 58 | 59 ssh key | ssh-ed25519 aaaac3nzac1lzdi1nte5aaaaicsluiy54h5flgxnnxqifwpnfvknih1/f0xf0ycthdqv 60 | 61 id proof | https://keyoxide.org/7a8e129dbe679dabaeb337c5c7877c715113a16d 62 | 63 ---------------------------------------------------------------- 64 65 finger ring: 66 67 * drkhsh@drkhsh.at 68 69 EOF 70 ``` 71 72 The script has to be executable, then I restarted the `xinetd` service. 73 74 If you try this also make sure port 79 is allowed through your firewall, this is the default `fingerd` port. 75 76 A few of us on IRC have now started a "finger ring", so if you think this is fun and want to join in let me know using the contact details on my [homepage](https://pyratebeard.net){target="_blank" rel="noreferrer"}, or `finger` me, or jump into the #unix channel on [unix.chat](https://unix.chat){target="_blank" rel="noreferrer"} and post your finger link.