Found 1 record.

Status: Reported (1)

RFC 1288, "The Finger User Information Protocol", December 1991

Errata ID: 6706
Status: Reported
Type: Technical
Publication Format(s) : TEXT
Reported By: Peter Smith
Date Reported: 2021-10-11

Section 2.3 says:

   The Finger query specification is defined:

        {Q1}    ::= [{W}|{W}{S}{U}]{C}

        {Q2}    ::= [{W}{S}][{U}]{H}{C}

        {U}     ::= username

        {H}     ::= @hostname | @hostname{H}

        {W}     ::= /W

        {S}     ::= <SP> | <SP>{S}

        {C}     ::= <CRLF>

It should say:

   The Finger query specification is defined:

        {Q1}    ::= [{W}{S}][{U}]{C}

        {Q2}    ::= [{W}{S}][{U}]{H}{C}

        {U}     ::= username

        {H}     ::= @hostname | @hostname{H}

        {W}     ::= /W

        {S}     ::= <SP> | <SP>{S}

        {C}     ::= <CRLF>

Notes:

Query format one is intended to do a FINGER request, optionally supplying a username and optionally supplying a "/W ". These optional switches are orthogonal; you can specify one or the other or both.

The original BNF makes the /W switch mandatory when supplying a user name.

I've checked the source code for several Finger server implementations; they all accept /W as optional.

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