INETD.CONF(5,F) AIX TCP/IP User's Guide INETD.CONF(5,F) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- inetd.conf PURPOSE Configures the inetd daemon. SYNOPSIS /etc/inetd.conf DESCRIPTION The inetd.conf file is used to configure the inetd daemon. Each new line-delimited entry in the inetd.conf file contains seven fields 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: service-name socket-type protocol wait/nowait user server-program server-program-arguments The service name entry is the name of a valid service in the file /etc/services. For internal services, discussed below, the service name must be the official name of the service (that is, the first entry in /etc/services). The socket-type should be one of stream, dgram, raw, rdm, or seqpacket, depending on whether the socket is a stream, datagram, raw, reliably delivered message, or sequenced packet socket. The protocol must be a valid protocol as in /etc/protocols. Examples might be TCP or UDP. The wait/nowait entry is applicable to datagram sockets only (other sockets should have a nowait entry in this space). If a datagram server connects to its peer, freeing the socket so inetd can receive further messages on the socket, it is said to be a multi-threaded server, and should use the nowait entry. For datagram servers which process all incoming datagrams on a socket and eventually time out, the server is said to be single-threaded and should use a wait entry. biff and talk are both examples of the latter type of datagram server. tftpd is an exception. It is a datagram server that establishes pseudo-connections. It must be listed as wait in order to avoid a Processed October 29, 1990 INETD.CONF(5,F) 1
INETD.CONF(5,F) AIX TCP/IP User's Guide INETD.CONF(5,F) race. The server reads the packet, creates a new socket, and then forks and exits to allow inetd to check for new service requests to spawn new servers. Processed October 29, 1990 INETD.CONF(5,F) 2
INETD.CONF(5,F) AIX TCP/IP User's Guide INETD.CONF(5,F) The user entry should contain the name of the user to whom the server should run. This allows for servers to be given less permission than root. The server program entry should contain the path name of the program which is to be executed by inetd when a request is found on its socket. If inetd provides this service internally, this entry should be internal. The arguments to the server program should be just as they normally are, starting with argv[0], which is a pointer to the name of the program. EXAMPLES ftp stream tcp nowait root /etc/ftpd ftpd telnet stream tcp nowait root /etc/telnetd telnetd shell stream tcp nowait root /etc/rshd rshd login stream tcp nowait root /etc/rlogind rlogind exec stream tcp nowait root /etc/rexecd rexecd smtp stream tcp nowait root /usr/lib/sendmail sendmail -bn tftp dgram udp wait nobody /etc/tftpd tftpd comsat dgram udp wait root /etc/comsat comsat talk dgram udp wait root /etc/talkd talkd ntalk dgram udp wait root /etc/talkd talkd echo dgram udp wait root internal discard dgram udp wait root internal chargen dgram udp wait root internal daytime dgram udp wait root internal time dgram udp wait root internal FILES /etc/inetd.conf RELATED INFORMATION In this book: "inetd" "rc.tcpip, rc.tcpip.local" "protocols" "tftpd" Processed October 29, 1990 INETD.CONF(5,F) 3