protocols(4N)                    (TCP/IP)                     protocols(4N)


   NAME
         protocols - protocol name data base

   SYNOPSIS
         /etc/protocols

   DESCRIPTION
         The protocols file contains information regarding the known protocols
         used in the DARPA Internet.  For each protocol a single line should
         be present with the following information:

               official-protocol-name  protocol-number   aliases

         Items are separated by any number of blanks and/or TAB characters.  A
         `#' indicates the beginning of a comment; characters up to the end of
         the line are not interpreted by routines which search the file.

         Protocol names may contain any printable character other than a field
         delimiter, NEWLINE, or comment character.

   EXAMPLE
         The following is a sample database:

         #
         # Internet (IP) protocols
         #
         ip      0       IP      # internet protocol, pseudo protocol number
         icmp    1       ICMP    # internet control message protocol
         ggp     3       GGP     # gateway-gateway protocol
         tcp     6       TCP     # transmission control protocol
         pup     12      PUP     # PARC universal packet protocol
         udp     17      UDP     # user datagram protocol

   FILES
         /etc/protocols

   SEE ALSO
         getprotoent(3N)

   NOTES
         A name server should be used instead of a static file.  A binary
         indexed file format should be available for fast access.











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