[HECnet] Re: DECnet Finger Specification (Possible re-post) and Tops-20 Finger Setup Documentation (New)

On 2026-01-10 15:30, Thomas DeBellis wrote: SPCVXA::, SPCVXB:: and SPC11D:: should all have working (ish) Finger servers. The first two are VAX/VMS V7.3 systems in a cluster with DECUS Finger (as maintained by me). SPC11D: is a RSTS/E V10.1 system with a Finger server written from scratch by me. If anyone really wants it, I could bring up a PC (SPCPCA::, not a known HECnet node) running MS-DOS Finger using PCSA/ DECnet/DOS, Pathworks, or whatever nom de jour it was using back then). The output is pretty boring when Finger-ing into it, but it does implement both a full client as well as pass- thru. Locally it just says "You are the only user, of course." when run. That one was also written from scratch by me. Note that the SPCxxx:: Fingers can tack on an undocumented /IAM qualifier which I need to get around to removing. Back when the world was a kinder, gentler place and Finger might be restricted to within an organization, /IAM told the re- mote host your username and nodename (nodename is needed be- cause there might be intermediate nodes) in order for the remote Finger server to tell you if the user you were Fin- gering had unread mail from you. I'll be removing the generation of /IAM and will ignore any /IAM received. I'd like to suggest that unknown qualifiers on the received request be silently ignored and that all implementations in- clude support for the /help qualifier. Likewise, support for empty lines ("list all users") and a line with just a username should be supported. Implemen- tations should feel free to generate appropriate errors if they choose to not allow listing all users, not listing a specific user, etc. If routing is allowed (host1::host2::user@host3:: type con- nections, intermediate hosts should pass the received com- mand line through unchanged, even if that command line has options that the local system doesn't understand/implement. If you want to receive an essay, do "finger spcvxa::/help" Some examples: Example: SPC11D:: to SPCVXA:: $ finger spcvxa::/all [SPCVXA.DECnet] SPC Memorial VAXcluster SPCVXA VAX 8650, OpenVMS V7.3, Sat, 10-Jan-2026 16:38, 0 Users, 0 Batch Uptime 6 15:26, since Sun, 4-Jan-2026 01:12, Load: 0.00 0.00 0.00 PID Username Program Term Login CPU Location TT Type 20E00101 <Swapper> $ System 00:00 0:00 20E0010E AUDIT$SERVER Audit_Ser System 01:13 0:00 20E00113 DECNET Netacp System 01:13 0:01 20E00114 DECNET Evl Network 01:13 0:00 20E00130 PHONE$SERVER Finger Network 16:33 0:00 20E00106 SYSTEM Csp System 01:13 0:00 20E00107 SYSTEM Configure System 01:13 0:00 20E00108 SYSTEM Lanacp System 01:13 0:00 20E0010A SYSTEM Ipcacp System 01:13 0:00 20E0010B SYSTEM Errfmt System 01:13 0:00 20E0010C SYSTEM Fileserv System 01:13 0:00 20E0010D SYSTEM Opcom System 01:13 0:00 20E0010F SYSTEM Jbc$Job_C System 01:13 0:00 20E00110 SYSTEM Qman$Queu System 01:13 0:00 20E00111 SYSTEM Security_ System 01:13 0:00 20E00112 SYSTEM Smiserver System 01:13 0:00 20E00115 SYSTEM Remacp System 01:13 0:00 20E00116 SYSTEM Server System 01:13 0:00 20E00118 SYSTEM Sshd_Mast System 01:13 0:50 20E00119 SYSTEM Ntpd System 01:13 0:00 20E0011A SYSTEM Dia Detach 01:14 1:02 20E0011C SYSTEM Latacp System 01:14 0:00 20E0011E SYSTEM $ OPA0: 01:14 0:08 System Console VT320 $ finger spcvxa::system [SPCVXA.DECnet] SPCVXA OpenVMS, Sat, 10-Jan-2026 16:33 PID Username Program Term Login CPU Location TT Type 20E0011E SYSTEM $ OPA0: 01:14 0:08 System Console VT320 Default directory: SYS$SYSROOT:[SYSMGR] Logged in since: Sun, 4-Jan-2026 19:51 Last non-interactive login: Sun, 4-Jan-2026 19:51 Mail: (no new mail) Plan: (no plan file) Examples: SPCVXB:: to SPC11D:: SPCVXB::$ f spc11d:: [SPC11D.DECnet] SPC Memorial PDP-11/70 SPC11D PDP-11/70, RSTS V10.1-L, Sunday, 10-Jan-1926 16:36, 8 Jobs, 63 Max. Uptime 6 16:01:06, since Monday, 4-Jan-1926 00:35 05-Sep-24 - Your message could be here! Edit FINGER$:FINGER.MSG to change it. Job Username PPN Progrm Term Login CPU ST Location TTType 1 SYSTEM 1,2 ERRCPY Det 00:00 SR - Detached - 2 SYSTEM 1,2 MAILQ Det 00:01 SR - Detached - 3 SYSTEM 1,2 OMS Det 00:05 SL - Detached - 4 SYSTEM 1,2 PBS... Det 00:12 SL - Detached - 5 SYSTEM 1,2 EVTLOG Det 00:00 SL - Detached - 6 SYSTEM 1,2 MESMAN Det 00:00 SL - Detached - 7 TERRY 20,254 DCL KB0: 01:10 21:35 ^C PiDP-11 Console VT100 8 SYSTEM 1,2 FINSRV Det 00:00 RN - Detached - SPCVXB::$ f spc11d::terry [SPC11D.DECnet] SPC11D RSTS/E, Sunday, 10-Jan-1926 16:36 Job Username PPN Progrm Term Login CPU ST Location TTType 7 TERRY 20,254 DCL KB0: 01:10 21:35 ^C PiDP-11 Console VT100 Default directory: _SY0:[20,254] Logged in since: Monday, 4-Jan-1926 01:11 Mail: (no new mail) Plan: Half of "The Bob & Terry Show", 1993-present Volunteer at the LSSM (Large Scale Systems Museum), 2016-present Volunteer at BERA (the Shore Line Trolley Museum), 2000-present Former Senior Network Engineer, Verio NY Metro Region, 1999-2001 Official Verio Motto: "Too many databases, too few brains" Former Operations Manager, SPC Academic Computing, 1976-1999 Official St. Peter's College Motto: "Nobody told me about this!" Personal web page: Personal email: http://www.glaver.org terry(a)glaver.org Example: Getting fancy ("Escaping" from HECnet): SPCVXB::$ f spc11d::server.glaver.org:: [SPC11D.DECnet] [SERVER.GLAVER.ORG via routing host SPCVAX] [SPCVAX.DECnet] [SERVER.GLAVER.ORG] Unauthorized Access Strictly Prohibited SERVER DS10 616 MHz, OpenVMS V8.4-2L1, Sat, 10-Jan-2026 16:46, 1 User, 0 Batch Uptime 70 00:59, since Sat, 1-Nov-2025 15:46, Load: 0.00 0.01 0.02 PID Username Program Term Login CPU Location TT Type 0003A703 TERRY $ NTY17: 19:21 0:03 office.glaver.or VT3xx 00034C64 TERRY $ NTY14: 00:59 0:16 bedroom.glaver.o VT3xx To explain that, SPCVXB opened a finger connecton to SPC11D::, asking about server.glaver.org (the :: has to be tacked on so it isn't treated as a username on SPC11D. SPC11D is a DECnet-only host and it doesn't know about anything named server.glaver.org, so it kicks it to its con- figured Finger router, SPCVAX:: (a cluster DECnet alias for SPCVXA:: and SPCVXB::). SPCVAX:: speaks both DECnet and TCP/IP, realizes that server. glaver.org is an Internet hostname and not a DECnet node, and opens a TCP/IP Finger connection to server.glaver.org (you can see that the trans- port isn't DECnet as it didn't append ".DECnet" to the host string). VMS Finger also supports a bunch of obsolete transports, like .BITNET.