NAME

inetd − internet services daemon

SYNOPSIS

/etc/inetd [ −d ]

DESCRIPTION

Inetd is the internet super-server which invokes all internet server processes as needed.  Connection-oriented services are invoked each time a connection is made, by creating a process.  This process is passed the connection as file descriptor 0 and an argument of the form “sourcehost.sourceport” where sourcehost is hex and sourceport is decimal. 

Datagram oriented services are invoked when a datagram arrives; a process is created and passed the connection as file descriptor 0.  Inetd will look at the socket where datagrams arrive again only after this process completes.  The paradigms for such proceses are either to read off the incoming datagram and then fork and exit, or to process the arriving datagram and then time out. 

Inetd consults servers(5) when it is invoked, and supports whatever services are in that file.

An rpc server can be started from inetd.  The only differences from the usual code are that svcudp_create should be called as:

transp = scvudp_create(0)

since inet passes a socket file as descriptor 0, and svc_register should be called as:

svc_register(PROGNUM, VERSNUM, service, transp, 0)

with the final flag as 0, since the program will already have been registered by inetd.  If you want to exit from the server process and return control to inet, you must explicitly exit since  scv_run never returns. 

The format of entries in /etc/servers for rpc services is:

rpc udp server-program program-number version-number

where server-program is the C code implementing the server, and program-number, version-number are the program, and version numbers, respectively of the service.  The keyword udp can be replaced by tcp for tcp-based services.

If the same program handles multiple versions, the version number can be specified as a range:

rpc udp /usr/etc/rstatd 100001 1-2

OPTIONS

−d Specifies that debugging traces are to be turned on for connection-oriented (TCP) services. 

FILES

/etc/serverslist of internet server processes

SEE ALSO

servers(5), comsat(8C), ftpd(8C), rexecd(8C), rlogind(8C), syslog(8), rshd(8C), talkd(8C), telnetd(8C), tftpd(8C)

BUGS

There is no provision for selectively invoking TCP debugging packet tracing per-service. 

Should reread the /etc/servers file on receipt of a SIGHUP signal.  The /etc/servers file can have no more than 26 lines. 

Sun Release 3.2  —  Last change: 28 February 1985