1 .\" Copyright (c) 1985 The Regents of the University of California.
2 .\" All rights reserved.
4 .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms are permitted
5 .\" provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
6 .\" duplicated in all such forms and that any documentation,
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9 .\" by the University of California, Berkeley. The name of the
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11 .\" from this software without specific prior written permission.
12 .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ``AS IS'' AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR
13 .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED
14 .\" WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
16 .\" @(#)inetd.8 6.5 (Berkeley) 9/19/88
18 .TH INETD 8 "September 19, 1988"
21 inetd \- internet ``super\-server''
26 ] [ configuration file ]
29 should be run at boot time by
31 It then listens for connections on certain
32 internet sockets. When a connection is found on one
33 of its sockets, it decides what service the socket
34 corresponds to, and invokes a program to service the request.
36 finished, it continues to listen on the socket (except in some cases which
37 will be described below). Essentially,
39 allows running one daemon to invoke several others,
40 reducing load on the system.
44 reads its configuration information from a configuration
45 file which, by default, is
47 There must be an entry for each field of the configuration
48 file, with entries for each field separated by a tab or
49 a space. Comments are denoted by a ``#'' at the beginning
50 of a line. There must be an entry for each field. The
51 fields of the configuration file are as follows:
65 server program arguments
69 entry is the name of a valid service in
72 For ``internal'' services (discussed below), the service
75 be the official name of the service (that is, the first entry in
80 should be one of ``stream'', ``dgram'', ``raw'', ``rdm'', or ``seqpacket'',
81 depending on whether the socket is a stream, datagram, raw,
82 reliably delivered message, or sequenced packet socket.
86 must be a valid protocol as given in
88 Examples might be ``tcp'' or ``udp''.
92 entry is applicable to datagram sockets only (other sockets should
93 have a ``nowait'' entry in this space). If a datagram server connects
94 to its peer, freeing the socket so
96 can received further messages on the socket, it is said to be
97 a ``multi-threaded'' server, and should use the ``nowait''
98 entry. For datagram servers which process all incoming datagrams
99 on a socket and eventually time out, the server is said to be
100 ``single-threaded'' and should use a ``wait'' entry. ``Comsat'' (``biff'')
101 and ``talk'' are both examples of the latter type of
104 is an exception; it is a datagram server that establishes pseudo-connections.
105 It must be listed as ``wait'' in order to avoid a race;
106 the server reads the first packet, creates a new socket,
107 and then forks and exits to allow
109 to check for new service requests to spawn new servers.
113 entry should contain the user name of the user as whom the server
114 should run. This allows for servers to be given less permission
118 entry should contain the pathname of the program which is to be
121 when a request is found on its socket. If
123 provides this service internally, this entry should
126 The arguments to the server program should be just as they
127 normally are, starting with argv[0], which is the name of
128 the program. If the service is provided internally, the
129 word ``internal'' should take the place of this entry.
132 provides several ``trivial'' services internally by use of
133 routines within itself. These services are ``echo'',
134 ``discard'', ``chargen'' (character generator), ``daytime''
135 (human readable time), and ``time'' (machine readable time,
136 in the form of the number of seconds since midnight, January
137 1, 1900). All of these services are tcp based. For
138 details of these services, consult the appropriate RFC
139 from the Network Information Center.
142 rereads its configuration file when it receives a hangup signal, SIGHUP.
143 Services may be added, deleted or modified when the configuration file
146 comsat(8), fingerd(8), ftpd(8), rexecd(8), rlogind(8), rshd(8),