inetd.conf(4)

Requires Optional LAN/X.25 Software

NAME

inetd.conf − configuration file for inetd

DESCRIPTION

inetd(1M) reads its configuration information from the configuration file /etc/inetd.conf upon execution, and possibly at some later time in response to a SIGHUP signal (see inetd(1M)).

Each line in the file is treated either as a comment or as configuration information for a given service. Comments are denoted by a # at the beginning of a line. Non-comment lines contain seven or nine required fields, depending on the service name specified in the first field. Fields are separated by tabs and/or spaces. A line can be continued if it terminates with a \. Each configuration line in the file contains the following fields in the order indicated:

service name
socket type
protocol
wait/nowait
user
server program
program number (RPC services only) (NFS)
version number (RPC services only) (NFS)
server program arguments

Fields are constructed as follows:

service name rpc if the server is RPC-based (NFS); otherwise, the name of a valid service in file /etc/services. For example, shell for the remsh(1) service, login for the rlogin(1) service and telnet for the telnet(1) service.

socket type stream or dgram, depending on whether the server socket is a stream or a datagram socket.

protocol Must be a valid protocol as given in /etc/protocols; for example, tcp or udp.

wait/nowait Applies to datagram sockets only (other sockets should specify nowait).

wait Instructs inetd to execute only one datagram server for the specified socket at any one time. Datagram servers that process all datagrams on a socket and terminate by timing out are called “single-threaded”. Most datagram RPC servers are single-threaded servers.

nowait Instructs inetd to execute a datagram server for a specified socket whenever a datagram arrives. Datagram servers that connect to their peers and free the socket so inetd can receive further datagrams are called “multi-threaded.”

user User ID to be used when the server is running.

server program Absolute pathname of the program executed by inetd when it finds a request on the server’s socket.

server program arguments
Arguments to the server program. The same as in normal use, starting with argv[0] which is the name of the program.

If service name is rpc ( NFS RPC services), two extra fields are required. They must appear between the server program field and the server program arguments field:

program number Defines a particular service grouping and is unique.

version number Version supported by the RPC service. This number can be a single value, or a range if the program handles multiple versions; for example, 1 or 1−3. Ranges are separated by a hyphen (−). Version numbers allow RPC protocols to be extended and modified, and make it possible for old and new protocols to share the same server process.

Built-in inetd Services

inetd provides several “trivial” services internally by use of built-in routines (see inetd(1M) for a list of these services). To configure an internal service, specify internal as the server program name, and omit the server program arguments field.

EXAMPLES

Configure the shell service to use TCP protocol, and run the server remshd as user root.

shell stream tcp nowait root /etc/remshd remshd

Configure the FTP server to timeout an inactive session after 75 seconds.

ftp stream tcp nowait root /etc/ftpd ftpd −t75

Configure an RPC-based service. Note that the service name field contains rpc and two more fields are used: the program number (100005) and version number (1).

rpc dgram udp wait root /etc/rpc.mountd 100005 1 rpc.mountd

Configure inetd to use the built-in daytime TCP service.

daytime stream tcp nowait root internal

AUTHOR

inetd.conf was developed by the University of California, Berkeley.
NFS was developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc.

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