Websnob > How to Finger Through a Web Page

How to Finger Through A Web Page

Finger is one of the oldest and simplest information protocols of the Internet, but not one intrinsic to most web browsers. This page contains a list of many known gateways, scripts, and URLs that can be used to create finger-hyperlinks.

When I first set up my little corner of the Web, I resolved to include a link fingering my home account, like lots of other pages I'd seen (I collect Web clichés.) Feeling unusally thorough, I looked up and down the Web for finger gateways, scripts, and tricks. I read finger specifications. I tried every method. I spent way too much time on a relatively minor project. (I do that a lot, as you might have guessed.)

I ended up choosing one of the most basic techniques, because it fit the my needs best, but your needs are doubtless different from my needs. This page describes 21 (and counting) different methods of "web-fingering" Some of them finger whole sites while some of them only finger individual accounts, but they all work, so just choose the one that works for you.

The Three Ways To Finger

All the fingering techniques listed here fall into three basic categories: scripts are CGI scripts that will need to be installed on the "fingeree's" web server, and should be usable by nearly anyone with cgi-bin permission. gateways are sites that make themselves publically avaiable for anyone to use. The miscellaneous URLs depend on specific attributes of a browser or server, and won't work with all software combinations.

This list (and the review pages) includes some gateways and scripts that are known to be no longer available. I left most of the descriptions in for historical completeness, but removed active hyperlinks to URLs I know are defunct.

CGI Scripts
1. The GF script
2. htmlfinger by Boris Margolin
3. htmlfinger by John Dubois
4. htmluser
5. The NCSA finger script
6. The Web Developer's Toolbox finger script
7. webfinger by Bruce Shuling
Finger Gateways
1. Brett's Web To Finger Gateway
2. Doug's WWW Finger Gateway
3. eArtmart Finger Gateway
4. FingerGate
5. Hyperfinger
6. InterLink WWW Finger gateway
7. The MIT Finger Gateway
8. Russell's Finger Gateway
9. Marc VanHeynigen's WWW-Finger Gateway with Faces
10. Xochipilli Finger Gateway
Miscellaneous URLs and Tricks

I intend to keep this list up-to-date: if you know of any gateways or scripts that I've missed, please e-mail me an URL describing the technique and I'll add it to the list

Understanding The Reviews

The descriptions of most techniques use the format described below. Most of them were tested by fingering islander@conch.aa.msen.com and/or islander@no1.superb.net, two accounts where I've set up browser-busting .plan files.

Contact: The creator of the gateway or script, if known.
Distribution Site: For CGI scripts, the web page or ftp directory the script in question may be downloaded from. Not listed for gateways or most miscellaneous techniques.
Interactive Example: If available, an URL demonstrating use of gateway/script as a "blank form" which lets the reader select an address to finger.
Fixed Example: An example URL fingering a specific address. Most of the Fixed URLs finger the address kibo@world.std.com. When seemingly extraneous characters (usually "?", but often "=", "&", "+", or numbers) appear, they're absolutely necessary, and will be needed in any active URL using that particular gateway. In most cases, the safest way to construct the Fixed URL is to look up the target using the Interactive URL and saving the output page to your hotlist for latering cutting-and-pasting. Just experiment a little and you'll figure it out.
Preserves Whitespace? "Yes" is good. In converting finger(1) output to HTML, many gateways and scripts allow browsers to collapse whitespace, changing the original formatting of of .plan files. Such collapsing will disrupt any tables, ASCII art, or PGP keys in a .plan file.
Renders HTML? Whether or not HTML in .plan file is rendered by a gatway or script. If a gateway/script doesn't render HTML itself, your browser might, depending on the Internet Media Type of the output, and the results of entity-escaping. Frankly, including HTML in a .plan file is such a crap shoot that I don't recommend trying it.
Escapes Entities? "Yes" is usually good. In HTML, certain ASCII characters (notably <, >, &, and " require special "escape sequences" to ensure proper rendering. Gateways and CGI scripts that don't add those escape sequences to finger output will be setting up a reader for various errors. One common (and vicious) error: any text between < and > often disappears, mistaken for an HTML tag. On the other hand, scripts that escape entities may prevent your browser from using HTML included in a .plan file.
Verbose Output? "Yes" is good. Not all finger daemons return all available data by default -- many will not include a .project and .plan unless the finger request explicitly requests verbose output (on most version of finger, that means using the -l switch). This field of the review tells whether or not the script/gateway requests verbose output by default, and (if applicable), how to change the default. If you want to test a gateway or script for verbose output, don't use my conch.aa.msen.com account, because its finger daemon always provides verbose output -- islander@no1.superb.net, on the other hand, defaults to the briefer output.
Other Comments: Anything else I think is important.