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Name

inetd - Internet services daemon

Synopsis

inetd [ -d ] [ -s ] [ -t ] [ -r count interval ] [ configuration-file ]

Availability

SUNWcsu

Description

inetd is the server process for the Internet standard services. It is usually started up at system boot time. The configuration-file lists the services that inetd is to provide. If no configuration-file is given on the command line, inetd reads its configuration information from the file /etc/inetd.conf. See inetd.conf(4) for more information on the format of this file. inetd listens for service requests on the TCP or UDP ports associated with each of the service listed in the configuration file. When a request arrives, inetd executes the server program associated with the service.

A service can be configured to be ‘‘single-threaded’’, in which case inetd waits for the server process to exit before starting a second server process. RPC services can also be started by inetd.

inetd provides a number of simple Internet services internally. These include echo, discard, chargen (character generator), daytime (human-readable time), and time (machine-readable time, in the form of the number of seconds since midnight, January 1, 1900).

inetd rereads its configuration file once when it is started and again whenever it receives a hangup signal, SIGHUP. New services can be activated, and existing services deleted or modified by editing the configuration file, then sending inetd a SIGHUP signal.

Options

-d
Runs inetd in the foreground and enables debugging output.
-s
Allows you to run inetd ‘‘stand-alone,’’ outside the Service Access Facility (SAF). If the -s option is omitted, inetd will attempt to contact the service access controller (SAC) and will exit if SAC is not already running. See sac(1M) .
-t
Instructs inetd to trace the incoming connections for all of its TCP services. It does this by logging the client’s IP address and TCP port number, along with the name of the service, using the syslog(3) facility. UDP services can not be traced. When tracing is enabled, inetd uses the syslog facility code ‘‘daemon’’ and ‘‘notice’’ priority level.
-r
Allows inetd to detect and then suspend ‘‘broken’’ servers. The -r flag has the form:
-r
count interval
count
and interval are decimal numbers that represent the maximum count of invocations per interval of seconds a service may be started before the service is considered ‘‘broken’’.
Once considered ‘‘broken’’, a server is suspended for ten minutes. After ten
minutes, inetd again enables service, hoping the server behaves correctly.
If the
-r flag is not specified, inetd behaves as though -r40 60 was specified.

Operands

configuration-file
Lists the services inetd is to provide.

Exit Status

inetd does not return an Exit Status.

See Also

in.ftpd(1M) , in.rexecd(1M) , in.rshd(1M) , in.tftpd(1M) , sac(1M) , inetd.conf(4)

Postel, Jon, ‘‘Echo Protocol,’’ RFC 862, Network Information Center, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA, May 1983.

Postel, Jon, ‘‘Discard Protocol,’’ RFC 863, Network Information Center, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA, May 1983.

Postel, Jon, ‘‘Character Generator Protocol,’’ RFC 864, Network Information Center, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA, May 1983.

Postel, Jon, ‘‘Daytime Protocol,’’ RFC 867, Network Information Center, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA, May 1983.

Postel, Jon, and Ken Harrenstien, ‘‘Time Protocol,’’ RFC 868, Network Information Center, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA, May 1983.

Warnings

Do not configure udp services as nowait. This will cause a race condition where the inetd program selects on the socket and the server program reads from the socket. Many server programs will be forked and performance will be severely compromised.

Notes

For RPC services, inetd listens on all the transports (not only tcp and udp) as specified for each service in the inetd.conf(4) file.


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