inetd.conf

NAME

inetd.conf - inetd configuration file

DESCRIPTION

The inetd.conf file is the configuration file for the inetd(1) daemon. The file contains the list of Internet-related services that inetd(1) can invoke when it receives a request from an Internet client.

Each line of the inetd.conf file has configuration information for one service. The format is:

[camp-]service_name   socket_type   protocol   {wait|no wait}   user   {daemon|internal}   arguments

Pound signs (#) are used to mark comments.

Below is a description of each field in the inetd configuration file.

[camp-]

Disables the indicated service, but blocks access to the default port used by the service. Use this to prevent a trojan horse program from using the port.

service_name

The name of a service listed in the %windir%/system32/drivers/etc/Services file. Remote procedure call (RPC) service names are followed by a slash and the version number or range of version numbers. Internal service names must be the first entry from the %windir%/system32/drivers/etc/Services file.

socket_type

One of the following: stream, a stream socket; dgram, a datagram socket; raw, a raw socket; rdm, a reliably delivered message socket; or seqpacket, a sequenced packet socket.

protocol

The name of a protocol listed in the %windir%/system32/drivers/etc/protocol file. For RPC services, use RPC followed by slash (/) and the name of the protocol; for example, rpc/udp.

{wait|no wait}

Multi-threaded servers, datagram servers that connect to peers and free a socket for inetd to receive more packets on the socket, should use nowait. Single-threaded servers, datagram servers that do not release the socket until a time-out occurs, must be set to wait.

The tftpd(1) daemon, a datagram server that establishes separate pseudo connections, must be set to wait. Although it appears to need a nowait entry, its forking behavior can lead to a race condition unless it is set to wait.

user

The user under which the server program will run. This allows servers to run with less access than the root account.

{daemon|internal}

The path name to the server program that inetd starts when asked to perform a requested service. Contains the value internal if inetd provides the service internally.

arguments

The argument(or arguments) that should be passed to the server program. You must include the entire command line (the server program name is passed as argv[0]). If the server program is internal, you can leave this blank.

EXAMPLES

The following line is an example from the Interix inetd.conf file.

ftp   stream   tcp   nowait   NULL   /usr/sbin/in.ftpd   in.ftpd -l

ftp

Service name. Listed in %windir%/system32/drivers/etc/Services.

stream

Socket type.

tcp

Protocol. Listed in %windir%/system32/drivers/etc/protocol.

nowait

Set to nowait because ftp is a multi-threaded datagram server

NULL

The user associated with this server program.

/usr/sbin/in.ftpd

The path and file name of the daemon or server program.

in.ftpd -l

The server program arguments. The argument in.ftpd is argv[0] and -l is argv[1].

FILES

/etc/inetd.conf

The inetd(1) configuration file.

%windir%/system32/drivers/etc/Services

Provides service name-to-port identification resolution for Windows Sockets applications. The list of valid services that can be used by inetd.

%windir%/system32/drivers/etc/protocol

Provides protocol name-to-protocol identification resolution for Windows Sockets applications. The list of valid protocols that can be used by inetd.

NOTES

To prevent tampering, if the permissions protecting inetd.conf file allow the file to be written by anyone other than the file's owner and group, the file is ignored and an error is logged using syslogd.

SEE ALSO

inetd(1)