Personal Finger Daemon for Windows

By Robert Ellison. Updated on Wednesday, June 2, 2021.

Did you know that Windows still has a vestigial finger command with just about nothing left to talk to? One of my New Year's resolutions is to bring finger back and unlike the stalled webfinger project I need to make some progress. Here's some C# to run your own personal finger daemon... you just need to create a .plan file in your home directory (haven't done that for a while):

	using System;
	using System.Diagnostics;
	using System.IO;
	using System.Net;
	using System.Net.Sockets;
	using System.Text;
	using System.Threading;

	namespace fingerd
	{
	static class Program
	{
	private const int FingerPort = 79;
	private const int MaxFingerCommand = 256;
	private const string PlanFile = ".plan";

	private static readonly TcpListener _tcpListener = new TcpListener(
	IPAddress.Any, FingerPort);

	static void Main()
	{
	_tcpListener.Start();

	while (true)
	{
	TcpClient tcpClient = _tcpListener.AcceptTcpClient();
	Thread clientThread = new Thread(ClientThread);
	clientThread.Start(tcpClient);
	}
	}

	static void ClientThread(object client)
	{
	NetworkStream clientStream = null;
	TcpClient tcpClient = client as TcpClient;
	if (tcpClient == null) { return; }

	try
	{
	byte[] command = new byte[MaxFingerCommand];
	clientStream = tcpClient.GetStream();

	int read = clientStream.Read(command, 0, command.Length);
	if (read == 0) { return; }

	ASCIIEncoding asciiEncoding = new ASCIIEncoding();
	string commandText = asciiEncoding.GetString(command);

	int endOfCommand = commandText.IndexOf("\r\n",
	StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase);
	if (endOfCommand <= 0) { return; }

	string user = commandText.Substring(0, endOfCommand);
	if (string.Compare(user, Environment.UserName,
	StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase) != 0) { return; }

	string planPath = Path.Combine(Environment.GetFolderPath(
	Environment.SpecialFolder.UserProfile),
	PlanFile);
	if (!File.Exists(planPath)) { return; }

	string plan = File.ReadAllText(planPath) + "\r\n";
	byte[] planBytes = asciiEncoding.GetBytes(plan);
	clientStream.Write(planBytes, 0, planBytes.Length);
	}
	catch (Exception ex)
	{
	Debug.WriteLine(ex);
	}
	finally
	{
	if (clientStream != null)
	{
	clientStream.Close();
	}
	tcpClient.Close();
	}
	}
	}
	}

view raw Program.cs hosted with ❤ by GitHub

using System; using System.Diagnostics; using System.IO; using System.Net; using System.Net.Sockets; using System.Text; using System.Threading; namespace fingerd { static class Program { private const int FingerPort = 79; private const int MaxFingerCommand = 256; private const string PlanFile = ".plan"; private static readonly TcpListener _tcpListener = new TcpListener( IPAddress.Any, FingerPort); static void Main() { _tcpListener.Start(); while (true) { TcpClient tcpClient = _tcpListener.AcceptTcpClient(); Thread clientThread = new Thread(ClientThread); clientThread.Start(tcpClient); } } static void ClientThread(object client) { NetworkStream clientStream = null; TcpClient tcpClient = client as TcpClient; if (tcpClient == null) { return; } try { byte[] command = new byte[MaxFingerCommand]; clientStream = tcpClient.GetStream(); int read = clientStream.Read(command, 0, command.Length); if (read == 0) { return; } ASCIIEncoding asciiEncoding = new ASCIIEncoding(); string commandText = asciiEncoding.GetString(command); int endOfCommand = commandText.IndexOf("\r\n", StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase); if (endOfCommand <= 0) { return; } string user = commandText.Substring(0, endOfCommand); if (string.Compare(user, Environment.UserName, StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase) != 0) { return; } string planPath = Path.Combine(Environment.GetFolderPath( Environment.SpecialFolder.UserProfile), PlanFile); if (!File.Exists(planPath)) { return; } string plan = File.ReadAllText(planPath) + "\r\n"; byte[] planBytes = asciiEncoding.GetBytes(plan); clientStream.Write(planBytes, 0, planBytes.Length); } catch (Exception ex) { Debug.WriteLine(ex); } finally { if (clientStream != null) { clientStream.Close(); } tcpClient.Close(); } } } }

Add your comment...

(All Code Posts)

(Published to the Fediverse as: Personal Finger Daemon for Windows #code #random #finger #fingerd An impractical attempt to bring finger back (the awesome UNIX utility for pinging a person, so much better than Facebook!) )

code, random, finger, fingerd