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CHFN(1)                          User Commands                         CHFN(1)

NAME
       chfn - change real user name and information

SYNOPSIS
       chfn [options] [LOGIN]

DESCRIPTION
       The chfn command changes user fullname, office room number, office
       phone number, and home phone number information for a user's account.
       This information is typically printed by finger(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 -o option to change the undefined portions of the
       GECOS field.

       These fields must not contain any colons. Except for the other 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 other field is used to store accounting information
       used by other applications.

OPTIONS
       The options which apply to the chfn command are:

       -f, --full-name FULL_NAME
           Change the user's full name.

       -h, --home-phone HOME_PHONE
           Change the user's home phone number.

       -o, --other OTHER
           Change the user's other GECOS information. This field is used to
           store accounting information used by other applications, and can be
           changed only by a superuser.

       -r, --room ROOM_NUMBER
           Change the user's room number.

       -R, --root CHROOT_DIR
           Apply changes in the CHROOT_DIR directory and use the configuration
           files from the CHROOT_DIR directory.

       -u, --help
           Display help message and exit.

       -w, --work-phone WORK_PHONE
           Change the user's office phone number.

       If none of the options are selected, chfn 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 [ ] marks. Without options, chfn prompts for the current user
       account.

CONFIGURATION
       The following configuration variables in /etc/login.defs change the
       behavior of this tool:

       CHFN_RESTRICT (string)
           This parameter specifies which values in the gecos field of the
           /etc/passwd file may be changed by regular users using the chfn
           program. It can be any combination of letters f, r, w, h, for Full
           name, Room number, Work phone, and Home phone, respectively. For
           backward compatibility, yes is equivalent to rwh and no is
           equivalent to frwh. If not specified, only the superuser can make
           any changes. The most restrictive setting is better achieved by not
           installing chfn SUID.

FILES
       /etc/login.defs
           Shadow password suite configuration.

       /etc/passwd
           User account information.

SEE ALSO
       chsh(1), login.defs(5), passwd(5).

shadow-utils 4.8.1                02/06/2024                           CHFN(1)
NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | CONFIGURATION | FILES | SEE ALSO