11 Jan
2026
11 Jan
'26
12:41 a.m.
As far as I am aware, Johnny is completely correct.
Internet Finger expects RFC822 formatted names. An example would be
slogin(a)venti2.tommytimesharing.org, which triggers TCP/IP transport.
Identifying the same user on the same machine on HECnet uses MAIL11
format, or VENTI2::SLOGIN. Application level routing works as Johnny
describes.
So the parser works by waking up on a trailing "::" which is MAIL11
syntax to identify a node. MAIL11 format is preferred over RFC822, so
it checks that the proceeding characters are valid syntax for a DECnet
node (restricted SIXBIT, 6 characters maximum) and that the identified
node is in the HECnet database. If it fails, you get a parse error. If
you have no trailing "::" and bump into an "@" sign, then RFC822
parsing
is used.
So the "::" is used as a field terminator, whereas the "@" functions
as
a field separator. Surrounding things with "::" probably won't work. I
believe I allow complex forwarded remote specifications to be surrounded
by double quotes, which is how I handle that funny Unix 'bang' (!) syntax.
Under Tops-20, finger is integrated into the mail system and is used to
resolve personal names into user ids.
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On 1/10/26 5:19 PM, Johnny Billquist wrote:
I find it really weird to use that kind of syntax, and it probably
will create a mess if you involve some other TCP/IP based finger
server in such a line.
In my RSX implementation, you would write
FINGER SPC11D::@server.glaver.org
The RFC for finger on TCP/IP really states that hosts should be
processed right to left, and the username is at the left end. So you
can do
finger bqt@mim.softjar.se@foo.bar.host.net
Which would contact foo.bar.host.net from the local machine, and
request bqt(a)mim.softjar.se as the username to that host, which would
then go and contact mim.softjar.se, just requesting information for
user "bqt".
If you pass it something with :: as a separation between hosts and/or
usernames, a RFC compliant finger server will not do what you would
hope for.
I will obviously not force anyone to rewrite any implementation, but
be aware that a proper TCP/IP RFC compliant finger server is
incompatible with this form host host name chains.
Johnny
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On 2026-01-10 23:08, Terri Kennedy wrote:
Example: Getting fancy ("Escaping" from HECnet):
SPCVXB::$ f spc11d::server.glaver.org::