Manual: chfn

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. Only
	   absolute paths are supported.

       -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 4.17.4					 02/02/2026						     CHFN(1)