              AFINGERD - STinG Finger Daemon v1.10
              ------------------------------------
		     (c)1998 Gary A. Priest
                     ----------------------

AFINGERD is a freeware finger daemon for the Atari ST/STE/TT/Falcon
and compatibles, when running the TCP/IP stack, STinG.

It receives and processes Finger requests from Finger clients.

It was written in assembler and is based on the Finger protocol 
defined in RFC1288.

To use a finger daemon, the computer running it must have a static IP 
address. If you do not have a static IP address then people would not 
know what address to finger you at.
Not all Internet Service Providers provide static IP addresses.
Thus unless your ISP does (as Demon Internet do), this program is 
probably only useful within your own internal network of computers.


CONFIGURATION
-------------
The program expects a subdirectory within it's main directory called;
/USERS/
Within this directory you simply store the ascii text files that you 
wish to returned to clients that finger your computer. The filename
should match the user.

Example
-------
When a client fingers your computer with 'finger gary@yourcomputer.com', 
the finger daemon looks for file \USERS\GARY and if found, reads it and
returns the contents of the file to the initiating client.
If no matching file is found, or no user is specified in the finger
request, ie. 'finger @yourcomputer.com', then the file DEFAULT.TXT is
read and the contents of that are sent instead.
DEFAULT.TXT must exist in the same folder as AFINGERD.PRG.

AFINGERD should work quite happily with long file names.
Thus the files in \USERS\ can be long such as gary_priest.


AFINGERD.INF
------------
AFINGERD can make use of a simple text file called AFINGERD.INF to locate 
it's resource file and \USERS\ and \LOGS\ folders.
This file must be in the same path as AFINGERD.PRG and contain one line
which is the path to the where these files are stored. eg. E:\AFINGERD\
It need only exist, if the resource files or required subfolders are to 
be stored in a folder other than the one containing AFINGERD.PRG.
eg. if you wish to run AFINGERD automatically at boot up you could 
simply store AFINGERD.PRG and AFINGERD.INF (or MagiC aliases) in your
auto start folder.


RUNNING AFINGERD
---------------
Once running, the program simply opens a passive (listen) connection 
on Port 79 (the standard Finger protocol port), and does nothing more 
until a Finger client initiates a Finger query to your computer.
AFINGERD then analyses the query, processes it, returns the result to 
the client, closes the connection, opens a new one, and sits and waits
again.


LOGGING
-------
AFINGERD automatically logs all finger requests in \LOGS\REQUESTS.LOG
This log file contains the local date/time of the request, the hostname
or IP address of the requestor, and the actual finger query required.


THE ABOUT WINDOW
----------------
Both the email address and the URL can be selected and copied to the 
GEM clipboard via (CTRL C or CTRL Insrt). This allows them to be 
pasted into any programs that support 'pasting' into their fields such 
as CAB. Saves all that typing!

For people who are really lazy, try double clicking on them.
A browser or mailer can be launched and passed a mailto: or http: url
eg. if you are ONLINE at the time, the web browser will go straight 
to my web site. Or in the case of the email address, you'll be all 
ready to start typing an email to me!
Two environment variables (BROWSER= & MAILER=) must be set up for this 
feature to work. These variables allow the program to know what 
programs to launch for web browsing and email.

Environment Variables
---------------------
BROWSER=C:\CAB\CAB.APP or whatever path points to your browser
MAILER=C:\CAB\CAB.APP or whatever path points to your email program (it 
must understand mailto: as a command line).

The variables will be searched for in this order:

1. STiK/STinG variables (defined within DEFAULT.CFG)
----------------------------------------------------
This is the preferred (and simplest) method.

Add the following lines to DEFAULT.CFG
BROWSER = C:\CAB\CAB.APP
MAILER = C:\CAB\CAB.APP

2. AES environment variables.
-----------------------------
Single TOS users must get hold of programs such as GEMENV and 
SETENV to use AES environment variables.

MagiC users should add the following lines to MAGX.INF
#_ENV BROWSER=C:\CAB\CAB.APP
#_ENV MAILER=C:\CAB\CAB.APP

MultiTOS or Geneva users should add the following lines to GEM.CNF
setenv BROWSER=C:\CAB\CAB.APP
setenv MAILER=C:\CAB\CAB.APP


FREEWARE
--------
AFINGERD is FREEWARE! I make no charge for using it.

If you use and like it, then please drop me an email and tell me 
so. Without encouragement, AFINGERD may not develop. So, even if it's 
just a one liner, please make the effort.


DISCLAIMER
----------
AFINGERD is used at your own risk. I will not be held responsible for 
any damage caused either directly or indirectly from it's use, or the 
loss of any electronic data.


KNOWN PROBLEMS/LIMITATIONS
--------------------------
.I have not tested it with STiK, and offer no guarantees that it will
 work. It definately works with STinG.

.It can only process one request at a time due to the fact that 
 it only ever opens one connection to Port 79 at a time.
 Due to the nature of Finger, this is not really a problem.

.It is really only of use when running under a multitasking operating 
 system such as MagiC, because it currently *does not* run as a desk 
 accessory. This may change in later versions.

.If the /W parameter is passed in a query, it is simply ignored (as 
 allowed in RFC1288).

.Host forwarding finger queries are not supported, such as
	finger foo@host1@host2
 If a finger client sends such a query, then an error message is 
 returned.

.Queries containing the \ character are automatically rejected.
 This is for security purposes, as somebody could could quite easily 
 access files outside of the \USERS\ folder, by send a query such as
	finger \..\AFINGERD.TXT@yourcomputer.com
 and this would result in the AFINGERD.TXT file being sent to them.
 As you can see, this is a very large security problem, which is why
 these queries are rejected.
 

NEW VERSIONS
------------
The latest version can be found at my website:

http://www.the-gap.demon.co.uk/

Finger versions@the-gap.demon.co.uk to get a list of current version 
numbers of all my programs.
THIS WILL ONLY WORK WHEN I AM ACTUALLY ONLINE TO THE INTERNET.
   
Gary Priest 03/05/98
gary@the-gap.demon.co.uk
