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Running from the Internet services daemon

UNIX programs that provide TCP/IP services can be started by the Internet services daemon, inetd. Services run from inetd are started when a request arrives for that service. This works well for lightweight or infrequently used services, since the program only needs to be running when servicing a request, but the downside is that the program must perform its initialization for each request. This can take considerable time and lead to delays in servicing requests.

To configure a service to be run from inetd, you have to define the service name and add the server details to the list of services in the inetd configuration files. Service names are defined by a line in the services file, which is usually either /etc/services or /etc/inet/services, for example:

  http    80/tcp          # Hypertext Transfer Protocol

The server details are specified in the inetd configuration file, which is usually /etc/inet/inetd.conf or /etc/inetd.conf:

  # Web server
  http stream tcp nowait root /etc/httpd -r /etc/httpd.conf

The precise syntax of this file varies from system to system.

The inetd program can be prompted to reread its configuration files, without rebooting the system, by sending it a SIGHUP signal. You will probably need to be logged in as root to do this.

Spinning the Web by Andrew Ford
© 1995 International Thomson Publishing
© 2002 Andrew Ford and Ford & Mason Ltd
Note: this HTML document was generated in December 1994 directly from the LaTeX source files using LaTeX2HTML. It was formatted into our standard page layout using the Template Toolkit. The document is mainly of historical interest as obviously many of the sites mentioned have long since disappeared.