Inetd file

[bAgZ]

Ok here is the problem/question. I edit inetd.conf file and you have a bunch of services and all that. Now this is what I need to know how does an operating system read this file. I mean is it going line by line or what exactly happens. I put to identical services running inside one after another how do I know which one is being started first? Any help would be appreciated?

[petemcevoy]

As far as i'm aware, inetd.conf would be read in a linear fashion, top to bottom, left to right. I don't know how or why you'd have two identical services running, what generally happens is - you start a daemon through inetd, this is called a parent process which would wait for a request and when it recieves one, it would spawn a child process to handle the request and leave it free to accept other connections.
Not sure if this is the answer to your question though.

[Gobinjf]

In fact, inetd.conf is read by inetd.

In our terms, inetd is a meta server, which means it is responsible for listening to (incoming) connections, and firing the right service (like in.telnetd or so on) when a request goes on.

You can look at this behaviour ... Just create an entry in inetd.conf, and put for program something that doesn't exist.

Try telnetting to that port ... and look. It will make the connection (three-way handshake) and then leave with a "connection reset by peer".

inetd is an application by itself and in no way part of the kernel.

Jean-Francois

[jcdux]

Don't forget to killall -HUP inted after modifying the conf file or else it won't see / make the change.

J.

[bAgZ]

Yeah thats what i was looking for. Thanks for the help.