fprintd(1)

✨ fprintd ✨

okay so bestie, you know how your laptop has that lil fingerprint reader? 💅 this is the manual page for fprintd (that's section 1 of the manual, for the curious 👑) — the fingerprint management daemon, plus the test applications that come with it. it's giving biometrics, it's giving security, it's giving you never typing your password again. 🫶

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

fprintd-enroll [-f finger] [usename]

fprintd-list username [usernames...]

fprintd-verify [-f finger] [usename]

fprintd-delete username [usernames...]

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

this manual page documents, briefly, the fprintd command-line utilities. that's the whole vibe, no gatekeeping here.

and like, the actual fprintd daemon itself? those command-line utilities talk to it through D-Bus. so the little CLI tools are basically the group chat, and the daemon is the friend who actually knows what's going on. 💬

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💖 ARGUMENTS 💖

• username — the username of the user whose fingerprint database you wanna query or modify. that's it, that's the whole thing.

so here's the tea: fprintd-list and fprintd-delete require at least one username, and they're flexible — they support multiple usernames. pass a whole friend group, they can handle it. 🫂

but fprintd-enroll and fprintd-verify? they'll just use the current username if you don't pass one. so chill, they already know it's you. ✨

• -f finger — for fprintd-enroll, this is the finger you wanna enroll. and bestie, there are ten possible values, so let's go:
  • left-thumb
  • left-index-finger
  • left-middle-finger
  • left-ring-finger
  • left-little-finger
  • right-thumb
  • right-index-finger
  • right-middle-finger
  • right-ring-finger
  • right-little-finger

the default is to choose automatically: it selects the first available finger for swipe devices, or all the enrolled fingers for press devices. lowkey smart of it, honestly.

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🌈 TEST APPLICATIONS 🌈

fprintd-enroll

will enroll the user's right index finger into the database. iconic. 👆

fprintd-list

will list the user's enrolled fingerprints. a lil show-and-tell of your digits. 📋

fprintd-verify

will verify the user's fingerprints against the database. the moment of truth, the vibe check, the "is that really you" 🫵

fprintd-delete

will delete the user's right index finger into the database. yep, that's what it says. it's out here removing fingers. 😭

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

fprintd was written by Bastien Nocera and Daniel Drake. absolute legends, no cap. 🫡

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🗂️ DIRECTORIES 🗂️

by default, fprintd stores the fingerprints in /var/lib/fprint/. that's where the magic lives, bestie. 🏠✨

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💜 SEE ALSO 💜

gnome-control-center

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no cap, that's the whole page. go forth and enroll responsibly. 💅🌸

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freedesktop · 2025-04-02 · fprintd(1) — mwah, bye bestie 🎀💖🦋