Linux in a Nutshell, Fourth Edition

Name

inetd

Synopsis

                  inetd [options] [configuration_file]

TCP/IP command. The internet services daemon. (On some systems this command is replaced by xinetd.) Initialized at bootup, inetd creates sockets on behalf of other services and listens to them simultaneously. When it receives an incoming connection request, it spawns the appropriate server and passes it the connection.

The following servers are commonly started by inetd: bootpd, bootpgw, fingerd, ftpd, imapd, rexecd, rlogind, rshd, talkd, telnetd, and tftpd. In addition to launching other services, inetd runs a few basic services of its own, including daytime, which returns the system’s time of day, and chargen, which generates a string of characters.

Configuration file

inetd reads information on the services it should support from the specified configuration_file, or from the default configuration file /etc/inetd.conf. inetd rereads its configuration file when it receives a hangup signal, SIGHUP. Services may be added, deleted, or modified when the configuration file is reread. Lines beginning with # are treated as comments. Each entry in the configuration file is a single line composed of the following fields:

service

The service name as found in /etc/services.

type

Socket type, either stream for TCP-based services or dgram for UDP-based services.

protocol

The transport protocol used by the service. This must be a protocol found in /etc/protocols. It’s usually either tcp or udp.

wait

For dgram sockets, this field specifies ...