.\" Copyright (c) 1985, 1991 The Regents of the University of California.
.\" %sccs.include.redist.man%
.\" @(#)inetd.8 6.7 (Berkeley) %G%
.Op Ar configuration file
should be run at boot time by
It then listens for connections on certain
internet sockets. When a connection is found on one
of its sockets, it decides what service the socket
corresponds to, and invokes a program to service the request.
finished, it continues to listen on the socket (except in some cases which
will be described below). Essentially,
allows running one daemon to invoke several others,
reducing load on the system.
reads its configuration information from a configuration
file which, by default, is
There must be an entry for each field of the configuration
file, with entries for each field separated by a tab or
a space. Comments are denoted by a ``#'' at the beginning
of a line. There must be an entry for each field. The
fields of the configuration file are as follows:
.Bd -unfilled -offset indent -compact
entry is the name of a valid service in
services (discussed below), the service
be the official name of the service (that is, the first entry in
depending on whether the socket is a stream, datagram, raw,
reliably delivered message, or sequenced packet socket.
must be a valid protocol as given in
entry is applicable to datagram sockets only (other sockets should
entry in this space). If a datagram server connects
to its peer, freeing the socket so
can received further messages on the socket, it is said to be
server, and should use the
entry. For datagram servers which process all incoming datagrams
on a socket and eventually time out, the server is said to be
are both examples of the latter type of
is an exception; it is a datagram server that establishes pseudo-connections.
in order to avoid a race;
the server reads the first packet, creates a new socket,
and then forks and exits to allow
to check for new service requests to spawn new servers.
entry should contain the user name of the user as whom the server
should run. This allows for servers to be given less permission
entry should contain the pathname of the program which is to be
when a request is found on its socket. If
provides this service internally, this entry should
.Em server program arguments
should be just as arguments
normally are, starting with argv[0], which is the name of
the program. If the service is provided internally, the
should take the place of this entry.
services internally by use of
routines within itself. These services are
(human readable time), and
in the form of the number of seconds since midnight, January
1, 1900). All of these services are tcp based. For
details of these services, consult the appropriate
from the Network Information Center.
rereads its configuration file when it receives a hangup signal,
Services may be added, deleted or modified when the configuration file
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