Inetd

Inetd is a super server for Unix systems and is implemented as a daemon, listening on the network sockets and request on a specified port a preset program (usually itself a daemon ) starts. It was introduced in version 4.3 of the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD ).

The inetd daemon listens always from certain, adjustable via a configuration file network ports. When a computer on the network connects to one of these ports, inetd receives the request and forwards all data to the port associated program ( inetd service) on. After completion of the connection of the inetd daemon stops the service automatically.

The corresponding server service is started only upon request, which saves system resources on the server system for services not commonly used. On the other hand, the client on the request must wait longer because - in contrast to a pure Daemon - significantly longer response times arise.

For several years there has been an advanced and newer version of the program, which is called xinetd.

Examples

  • FTP
  • Printer daemon as LPRD or CUPS
  • Simple TCP / UDP services such as Daytime, Echo
Superserver Daemon (computing) Client (computing) Daytime Protocol Echo Protocol List of Unix utilities Chown cp (Unix) df (Unix) ln (Unix) mkdir rm (Unix) rmdir shred (Unix) touch (Unix) cat (Unix) cut (Unix) head (Unix) sort (Unix) split (Unix) tail (Unix) tr (Unix) basename dirname du (Unix) expr nohup Printf format string Tee (command) test (Unix) True and false (commands) uname who (Unix) whoami
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