| CHFN(1) | User Commands | CHFN(1) |
.SH "NAME" chfn - change full user name and information
.SH "SYNOPSIS"
.HP 120u
chfn
[options]
[LOGIN]
.SH "DESCRIPTION"
.PP The chfn command changes the user's full name, office room number,
office phone number, and home phone number information for an account in the
respective fields of /etc/passwd. 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.
.PP 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.
.PP If LOGIN is not specified, chfn acts on the current user,
and prompts for the current user's password.
.SH "OPTIONS"
.PP The options which apply to the chfn command are:
.PP -f, --full-name FULL_NAME
Change the user's full name.
.RE
.PP -h, --home-phone HOME_PHONE
Change the user's home phone number.
.RE
.PP -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.
.RE
.PP -r, --room ROOM_NUMBER
Change the user's room number.
.RE
.PP -R, --root CHROOT_DIR
Apply changes in the CHROOT_DIR directory and use the configuration files from the CHROOT_DIR directory. No SELINUX support.
.RE
.PP -u, --help
Display help message and exit.
.RE
.PP -w, --work-phone WORK_PHONE
Change the user's office phone number.
.RE
.PP If none of the options is 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.
.SH "CONFIGURATION"
.PP 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.
.SH "FILES"
.PP /etc/login.defs
Shadow password suite configuration.
.RE
.PP /etc/passwd
| 08/29/2026 | shadow-utils 4.20.2 |