INETD(8)                NetBSD System Manager's Manual                INETD(8)

NAME
     inetd, inetd.conf -- internet ``super-server''

SYNOPSIS
     inetd [-d] [-l] [configuration file]

DESCRIPTION
     inetd should be run at boot time by /etc/rc (see rc(8)).  It then opens
     sockets according to its configuration and listens for connections.  When
     a connection is found on one of its sockets, it decides what service the
     socket corresponds to, and invokes a program to service the request.
     After the program is finished, it continues to listen on the socket
     (except in some cases which will be described below).  Essentially, inetd
     allows running one daemon to invoke several others, reducing load on the
     system.

     The options available for inetd:

     -d      Turns on debugging.

     -l      Turns on libwrap connection logging.

     Upon execution, inetd reads its configuration information from a configu-
     ration file which, by default, is /etc/inetd.conf.  The path given for
     this configuration file must be absolute, unless the -d option is also
     given on the command line.  There must be an entry for each field of the
     configuration file, with entries for each field separated by a tab or a
     space.  Comments are denoted by a ``#'' at the beginning of a line.
     There must be an entry for each field (except for one special case,
     described below).  The fields of the configuration file are as follows:

           [addr:]service-name
           socket-type[:accept_filter]
           protocol[,sndbuf=size][,rcvbuf=size]
           wait/nowait[:max]
           user[:group]
           server-program
           server program arguments

     To specify an Sun-RPC based service, the entry would contain these
     fields:

           service-name/version
           socket-type
           rpc/protocol[,sndbuf=size][,rcvbuf=size]
           wait/nowait[:max]
           user[:group]
           server-program
           server program arguments

     To specify a UNIX-domain (local) socket, the entry would contain these
     fields:

           path
           socket-type
           unix[,sndbuf=size][,rcvbuf=size]
           wait/nowait[:max]
           user[:group]
           server-program
           server program arguments

     For Internet services, the first field of the line may also have a host
     address specifier prefixed to it, separated from the service name by a
     colon.  If this is done, the string before the colon in the first field
     indicates what local address inetd should use when listening for that
     service, or the single character ``*'' to indicate INADDR_ANY, meaning
     `all local addresses'.  To avoid repeating an address that occurs fre-
     quently, a line with a host address specifier and colon, but no further
     fields, causes the host address specifier to be remembered and used for
     all further lines with no explicit host specifier (until another such
     line or the end of the file).  A line
           *:
     is implicitly provided at the top of the file; thus, traditional configu-
     ration files (which have no host address specifiers) will be interpreted
     in the traditional manner, with all services listened for on all local
     addresses.

     The service-name entry is the name of a valid service in the file
     /etc/services.  For ``internal'' services (discussed below), the service
     name must be the official name of the service (that is, the first entry
     in /etc/services).  When used to specify a Sun-RPC based service, this
     field is a valid RPC service name in the file /etc/rpc.  The part on the
     right of the ``/'' is the RPC version number.  This can simply be a sin-
     gle numeric argument or a range of versions.  A range is bounded by the
     low version to the high version - ``rusers/1-3''.

     The socket-type should be one of ``stream'', ``dgram'', ``raw'', ``rdm'',
     or ``seqpacket'', depending on whether the socket is a stream, datagram,
     raw, reliably delivered message, or sequenced packet socket.

     Optionally, an accept_filter(9) can be specified by appending a colon to
     the socket-type, followed by the name of the desired accept filter.  In
     this case inetd will not see new connections for the specified service
     until the accept filter decides they are ready to be handled.

     The protocol must be a valid protocol as given in /etc/protocols or the
     string ``unix''.  Examples might be ``tcp'' and ``udp''.  Rpc based ser-
     vices are specified with the ``rpc/tcp'' or ``rpc/udp'' service type.
     ``tcp'' and ``udp'' will be recognized as ``TCP or UDP over default IP
     version''.  It is currently IPv4, but in the future it will be IPv6.  If
     you need to specify IPv4 or IPv6 explicitly, use something like ``tcp4''
     or ``udp6''.  If you would like to enable special support for faithd(8),
     prepend a keyword ``faith'' into protocol, like ``faith/tcp6''.

     In addition to the protocol, the configuration file may specify the send
     and receive socket buffer sizes for the listening socket.  This is espe-
     cially useful for TCP as the window scale factor, which is based on the
     receive socket buffer size, is advertised when the connection handshake
     occurs, thus the socket buffer size for the server must be set on the
     listen socket.  By increasing the socket buffer sizes, better TCP perfor-
     mance may be realized in some situations.  The socket buffer sizes are
     specified by appending their values to the protocol specification as fol-
     lows:

           tcp,rcvbuf=16384
           tcp,sndbuf=64k
           tcp,rcvbuf=64k,sndbuf=1m

     A literal value may be specified, or modified using `k' to indicate kilo-
     bytes or `m' to indicate megabytes.  Socket buffer sizes may be specified
     for all services and protocols except for tcpmux services.

     The wait/nowait entry is used to tell inetd if it should wait for the
     server program to return, or continue processing connections on the
     socket.  If a datagram server connects to its peer, freeing the socket so
     inetd can receive further messages on the socket, it is said to be a
     ``multi-threaded'' server, and should use the ``nowait'' entry.  For
     datagram servers which process all incoming datagrams on a socket and
     eventually time out, the server is said to be ``single-threaded'' and
     should use a ``wait'' entry.  comsat(8) (biff(1)) and talkd(8) are both
     examples of the latter type of datagram server.  tftpd(8) is an excep-
     tion; it is a datagram server that establishes pseudo-connections.  It
     must be listed as ``wait'' in order to avoid a race; the server reads the
     first packet, creates a new socket, and then forks and exits to allow
     inetd to check for new service requests to spawn new servers.  The
     optional ``max'' suffix (separated from ``wait'' or ``nowait'' by a dot
     or a colon) specifies the maximum number of server instances that may be
     spawned from inetd within an interval of 60 seconds.  When omitted,
     ``max'' defaults to 40.  If it reaches this maximum spawn rate, inetd
     will log the problem (via the syslogger using the LOG_DAEMON facility and
     LOG_ERR level) and stop handling the specific service for ten minutes.

     Stream servers are usually marked as ``nowait'' but if a single server
     process is to handle multiple connections, it may be marked as ``wait''.
     The master socket will then be passed as fd 0 to the server, which will
     then need to accept the incoming connection.  The server should eventu-
     ally time out and exit when no more connections are active.  inetd will
     continue to listen on the master socket for connections, so the server
     should not close it when it exits.  identd(8) is usually the only stream
     server marked as wait.

     The user entry should contain the user name of the user as whom the
     server should run.  This allows for servers to be given less permission
     than root.  Optionally, a group can be specified by appending a colon to
     the user name, followed by the group name (it is possible to use a dot
     (``.'') in lieu of a colon, however this feature is provided only for
     backward compatibility).  This allows for servers to run with a different
     (primary) group id than specified in the password file.  If a group is
     specified and user is not root, the supplementary groups associated with
     that user will still be set.

     The server-program entry should contain the pathname of the program which
     is to be executed by inetd when a request is found on its socket.  If
     inetd provides this service internally, this entry should be
     ``internal''.

     The server program arguments should be just as arguments normally are,
     starting with argv[0], which is the name of the program.  If the service
     is provided internally, the word ``internal'' should take the place of
     this entry.  It is possible to quote an argument using either single or
     double quotes.  This allows you to have, e.g., spaces in paths and param-
     eters.

   Internal Services
     inetd provides several "trivial" services internally by use of routines
     within itself.  These services are "echo", "discard", "chargen" (charac-
     ter generator), "daytime" (human readable time), and "time" (machine
     readable time, in the form of the number of seconds since midnight, Jan-
     uary 1, 1900 GMT).  For details of these services, consult the appropri-
     ate RFC.

     TCP services without official port numbers can be handled with the
     RFC1078-based tcpmux internal service.  TCPmux listens on port 1 for
     requests.  When a connection is made from a foreign host, the service
     name requested is passed to TCPmux, which performs a lookup in the ser-
     vice name table provided by /etc/inetd.conf and returns the proper entry
     for the service.  TCPmux returns a negative reply if the service doesn't
     exist, otherwise the invoked server is expected to return the positive
     reply if the service type in /etc/inetd.conf file has the prefix
     "tcpmux/".  If the service type has the prefix "tcpmux/+", TCPmux will
     return the positive reply for the process; this is for compatibility with
     older server code, and also allows you to invoke programs that use
     stdin/stdout without putting any special server code in them.  Services
     that use TCPmux are "nowait" because they do not have a well-known port
     number and hence cannot listen for new requests.

     inetd rereads its configuration file when it receives a hangup signal,
     SIGHUP.  Services may be added, deleted or modified when the configura-
     tion file is reread.  inetd creates a file /var/run/inetd.pid that con-
     tains its process identifier.

   libwrap
     Support for TCP wrappers is included with inetd to provide internal tcpd-
     like access control functionality.  An external tcpd program is not
     needed.  You do not need to change the /etc/inetd.conf server-program
     entry to enable this capability.  inetd uses /etc/hosts.allow and
     /etc/hosts.deny for access control facility configurations, as described
     in hosts_access(5).

     Nota Bene: TCP wrappers do not affect/restrict UDP or internal services.

   IPsec
     The implementation includes a tiny hack to support IPsec policy settings
     for each socket.  A special form of the comment line, starting with
     ``#@'', is used as a policy specifier.  The content of the above comment
     line will be treated as a IPsec policy string, as described in
     ipsec_set_policy(3).  Multiple IPsec policy strings may be specified by
     using a semicolon as a separator.  If conflicting policy strings are
     found in a single line, the last string will take effect.  A #@ line
     affects all of the following lines in /etc/inetd.conf, so you may want to
     reset the IPsec policy by using a comment line containing only #@ (with
     no policy string).

     If an invalid IPsec policy string appears in /etc/inetd.conf, inetd logs
     an error message using syslog(3) and terminates itself.

   IPv6 TCP/UDP behavior
     If you wish to run a server for IPv4 and IPv6 traffic, you'll need to run
     two separate process for the same server program, specified as two sepa-
     rate lines on /etc/inetd.conf, for ``tcp4'' and ``tcp6''.  ``tcp'' means
     TCP on top of currently-default IP version, which is, at this moment,
     IPv4.

     Under various combination of IPv4/v6 daemon settings, inetd will behave
     as follows:
     o   If you have only one server on ``tcp4'', IPv4 traffic will be routed
         to the server.  IPv6 traffic will not be accepted.
     o   If you have two servers on ``tcp4'' and ``tcp6'', IPv4 traffic will
         be routed to the server on ``tcp4'', and IPv6 traffic will go to
         server on ``tcp6''.
     o   If you have only one server on ``tcp6'', only IPv6 traffic will be
         routed to the server.  The kernel may route to the server IPv4 traf-
         fic as well, under certain configuration.  See ip6(4) for details.

FILES
     /etc/inetd.conf   configuration file for all inetd provided services
     /etc/services     service name to protocol and port number mappings.
     /etc/protocols    protocol name to protocol number mappings
     /etc/rpc          Sun-RPC service name to service number mappings.
     /etc/hosts.allow  explicit remote host access list.
     /etc/hosts.deny   explicit remote host denial of service list.

SEE ALSO
     hosts_access(5), hosts_options(5), protocols(5), rpc(5), services(5),
     comsat(8), fingerd(8), ftpd(8), rexecd(8), rlogind(8), rshd(8),
     telnetd(8), tftpd(8)

     J. Postel, Echo Protocol, RFC, 862, May 1983.

     J. Postel, Discard Protocol, RFC, 863, May 1983.

     J. Postel, Character Generator Protocol, RFC, 864, May 1983.

     J. Postel, Daytime Protocol, RFC, 867, May 1983.

     J. Postel and K. Harrenstien, Time Protocol, RFC, 868, May 1983.

     M. Lottor, TCP port service Multiplexer (TCPMUX), RFC, 1078, November
     1988.

HISTORY
     The inetd command appeared in 4.3BSD.  Support for Sun-RPC based services
     is modeled after that provided by SunOS 4.1.  Support for specifying the
     socket buffer sizes was added in NetBSD 1.4.  In November 1996, libwrap
     support was added to provide internal tcpd-like access control function-
     ality; libwrap is based on Wietse Venema's tcp_wrappers.  IPv6 support
     and IPsec hack was made by KAME project, in 1999.

BUGS
     Host address specifiers, while they make conceptual sense for RPC ser-
     vices, do not work entirely correctly.  This is largely because the
     portmapper interface does not provide a way to register different ports
     for the same service on different local addresses.  Provided you never
     have more than one entry for a given RPC service, everything should work
     correctly (Note that default host address specifiers do apply to RPC
     lines with no explicit specifier.)

     ``tcpmux'' on IPv6 is not tested enough.

SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
     Enabling the ``echo'', ``discard'', and ``chargen'' built-in trivial ser-
     vices is not recommended because remote users may abuse these to cause a
     denial of network service to or from the local host.

NetBSD 5.0_STABLE               August 27, 2008              NetBSD 5.0_STABLE
