inetd

 

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 Maintenance Commands                                    inetd(1M)
 
 
 


NAME
      inetd - Internet services daemon
 


SYNOPSIS
      inetd [ -d ]  [ -s ]  [ -t ]  [  -r count   interval   ]   [
      configuration-file ]
 


DESCRIPTION
      inetd is the server process for the Internet  standard  ser-
      vices.  It  is  usually  started up at system boot time. The
      configuration-file lists the services that inetd is to  pro-
      vide. If no configuration-file is given on the command line,
      inetd reads its  configuration  information  from  the  file
      /etc/inetd.conf.  See  inetd.conf(4) for more information on
      the format of this file. inetd listens for service  requests
      on  the TCP or UDP ports associated with each of the service
      listed in the configuration file. When  a  request  arrives,
      inetd  executes  the server program associated with the ser-
      vice.
 
      A service can be configured to  be  "wait" wait-status,   in
      which  case,  inetd  waits  for  the  server process to exit
      before starting a second server process.  RPC  services  can
      also be started by inetd.
 
      inetd provides a number of simple Internet  services  inter-
      nally. These include  echo, discard, chargen (character gen-
      erator), daytime (human-readable time), and  time  (machine-
      readable  time,  in  the form of the number of seconds since
      midnight, January 1, 1900).
 
      inetd rereads its configuration-file once when it is started
      and  again whenever it receives a hangup signal, SIGHUP. New
      services can be  activated  and  existing  services  can  be
      deleted  or modified by editing the configuration-file, then
      sending inetd a  SIGHUP signal.
 
       Then inetd reads the  configuration-file  and  attempts  to
      bind()   to  the  service  to  start  listening  to it. That
      attempt may fail if  another standalone  server  or   "wait"
      wait-status server started by inetd is already listening for
      this service.  inetd will defer implementing the newly  read
      configuration for that service and will attempt periodically
      to start listening, after logging an error on  console.  The
      retry interval is currently 10 minutes.
 


OPTIONS
      -d    Runs inetd in the  foreground  and  enables  debugging
            output.
 
      -s    Allows you to run inetd ``stand-alone,''  outside  the
            Service  Access  Facility ("SAF"). If the -s option is
            omitted, inetd will attempt  to  contact  the  service
            access  controller ("SAC") and will exit if SAC is not
            already running.  See sac(1M)
 
      -t    Instructs inetd to trace the incoming connections  for
            all  of its TCP services.  It does this by logging the
            client's IP address and TCP port  number,  along  with
            the  name  of the service, using the syslog(3C) facil-
            ity. UDP services can not be traced. When  tracing  is
            enabled,  inetd  uses  the syslog facility code ``dae-
            mon''
             and ``notice'' priority level.
 
      -r    Allows inetd to detect  and  then  suspend  ``broken''
            connectionless datagram services servers, for example,
            UDP, and RPC/CLTS. Without  this  detection,  a  buggy
            server that fails before consuming the service request
            will be continuously restarted  and  will  tax  system
            resources too much. The -r flag has the form:
 
 
            -r  count interval
 
 
            count  and interval are decimal numbers that represent
            the  maximum   count  of  invocations  per interval of
            seconds a service may be started before the service is
            considered  ``broken.''
 
            Once considered ``broken,'' a server is suspended  for
            ten  minutes.   After ten minutes, inetd again enables
            service, hoping the server behaves correctly.
 
            If the -r flag is  not  specified,  inetd  behaves  as
            though -r40 60 was specified.
 


OPERANDS
      configuration-file
            Lists the services inetd is to provide.
 
 EXIT STATUS
      inetd does not return an exit status.
 


ATTRIBUTES
      See attributes(5) for descriptions of the  following  attri-
      butes:
 
      ____________________________________________________________
     |       ATTRIBUTE TYPE        |       ATTRIBUTE VALUE       |
     |_____________________________|_____________________________|
     | Availability                | SUNWcsu                     |
     |_____________________________|_____________________________|
 
 


SEE ALSO
      in.ftpd(1M),   in.rexecd(1M),   in.rshd(1M),   in.tftpd(1M),
      sac(1M), syslog(3C), inetd.conf(4), attributes(5)
 
      Postel, Jon, RFC 862:  Echo  Protocol,  Network  Information
      Center, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA, May 1983.
 
      Postel, Jon, RFC 863: Discard Protocol, Network  Information
      Center, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA, May 1983.
 
      Postel, Jon, RFC 864: Character Generator Protocol,  Network
      Information  Center,  SRI International, Menlo Park, CA, May
      1983.
 
      Postel, Jon,RFC 867: Daytime Protocol,  Network  Information
      Center, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA, May 1983.
 
      Postel, Jon, and Ken Harrenstien, RFC  868:  Time  Protocol,
      Network  Information  Center, SRI International, Menlo Park,
      CA, May 1983.
 
 WARNINGS
      Do not configure  udp services as nowait. This will cause  a
      race condition where the inetd program selects on the socket
      and the server program reads from the socket.   Many  server
      programs  will  be  forked  and performance will be severely
      compromised.
 


NOTES
      For RPC services, inetd listens on all the  transports  (not
      only  tcp  and  udp)  as  specified  for each service in the
      inetd.conf(4) file.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 SunOS 5.8           Last change: 26 Oct 1999                    3
 
 
 

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