inetd.conf(4)                                                      File Formats                                                      inetd.conf(4)

NAME

       inetd.conf - Internet servers database

SYNOPSIS

       /etc/inet/inetd.conf

       /etc/inetd.conf

DESCRIPTION

       In the current release of the Solaris operating system, the inetd.conf file is no longer directly used to configure inetd. The Solaris ser-
       vices which were formerly configured using this file are now configured in the Service Management Facility (see smf(5)) using  inetadm(1M).
       Any  records remaining in this file after installation or upgrade, or later created by installing additional software, must be converted to
       smf(5) services and imported into the SMF repository using inetconv(1M), otherwise the service will not be available.

       For Solaris operating system releases prior to the current release (such as Solaris 9), the inetd.conf file contains the  list  of  servers
       that inetd(1M) invokes when it receives an Internet request over a socket. Each server entry is composed of a single line of the form:

       service-name endpoint-type protocol wait-status uid server-program 
       server-arguments

       Fields  are separated by either <SPACE> or <TAB> characters. A `#' (number sign) indicates the beginning of a comment; characters up to the
       end of the line are not interpreted by routines that search this file.

       service-name            The name of a valid service listed in the services file. For RPC services, the value of the service-name field con-
                               sists  of  the RPC service name or program number, followed by a '/' (slash) and either a version number or a range
                               of version numbers, for example, rstatd/2-4.

       endpoint-type           Can be one of:

                               stream          for a stream socket

                               dgram           for a datagram socket

                               raw             for a raw socket

                               seqpacket       for a sequenced packet socket

                               tli             for all TLI endpoints

       protocol                A recognized protocol listed in the file /etc/inet/protocols. For servers capable of supporting TCP  and  UDP  over
                               IPv6, the following protocol types are also recognized:

                                    tcp6

                                    udp6

                               tcp6 and udp6 are not official protocols; accordingly, they are not listed in the /etc/inet/protocols file.

                               Here  the  inetd  program uses an AF_INET6 type socket endpoint. These servers can also handle incoming IPv4 client
                               requests in addition to IPv6 client requests.

                               For RPC services, the field consists of the string rpc followed by a '/' (slash) and either a '*'  (asterisk),  one
                               or  more  nettypes,  one  or  more netids, or a combination of nettypes and netids. Whatever the value, it is first
                               treated as a nettype.  If it is not a valid nettype, then it is treated as a netid. For example, rpc/* for  an  RPC
                               service using all the transports supported by the system (the list can be found in the /etc/netconfig file), equiv-
                               alent to saying rpc/visible rpc/ticots for an RPC service using the Connection-Oriented Transport Service.

       wait-status             This field has values wait or nowait. This entry specifies whether the server that is invoked by  inetd  will  take
                               over  the  listening socket associated with the service, and whether once launched, inetd will wait for that server
                               to exit, if ever, before it resumes listening for new service requests. The wait-status for datagram  servers  must
                               be set to wait, as they are always invoked with the orginal datagram socket that will participate in delivering the
                               service bound to the specified service. They do not have separate "listening" and "accepting" sockets. Accordingly,
                               do  not  configure  UDP  services as nowait. This causes a race condition by which 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. Connection-oriented services such as TCP stream services can be designed to be either wait or
                               nowait status.

       uid                     The user ID under which the server should run. This allows servers to run with access privileges other  than  those
                               for root.

       server-program          Either  the  pathname  of  a  server  program to be invoked by inetd to perform the requested service, or the value
                               internal if inetd itself provides the service.

       server-arguments        If a server must be invoked with command line arguments, the entire command line (including argument 0) must appear
                               in  this  field  (which  consists  of all remaining words in the entry). If the server expects inetd to pass it the
                               address of its peer, for compatibility with 4.2BSD executable daemons, then  the  first  argument  to  the  command
                               should be specified as %A. No more than 20 arguments are allowed in this field. The %A argument is implemented only
                               for services whose wait-status value is nowait.

FILES

       /etc/netconfig          network configuration file

       /etc/inet/protocols     Internet protocols

       /etc/inet/services      Internet network services

SEE ALSO

       rlogin(1), rsh(1), in.tftpd(1M), inetadm(1M), inetconv(1M), inetd(1M), services(4), smf(5)

NOTES

       /etc/inet/inetd.conf is the official SVR4 name of the inetd.conf file. The symbolic link /etc/inetd.conf exists for BSD compatibility.

       This man page describes inetd.conf as it was supported in Solaris operating system releases prior to the current release. The services that
       were configured by means of inetd.conf are now configured in the Service Management Facility (see smf(5)) using inetadm(1M).

SunOS 5.10                                                          17 Dec 2004                                                      inetd.conf(4)