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NAME

       xinetd - the extended Internet services daemon

SYNOPSIS

       xinetd [options]

DESCRIPTION

       xinetd  performs  the  same  function as inetd: it starts programs that
       provide Internet services.  Instead of having such servers  started  at
       system  initialization  time, and be dormant until a connection request
       arrives, xinetd is the only daemon process started and  it  listens  on
       all  service  ports  for the services listed in its configuration file.
       When a request comes in, xinetd starts the appropriate server.  Because
       of  the  way it operates, xinetd (as well as inetd) is also referred to
       as a super-server.

       The services listed in xinetd’s configuration  file  can  be  separated
       into two groups.  Services in the first group are called multi-threaded
       and they require the forking of a  new  server  process  for  each  new
       connection  request.  The new server then handles that connection.  For
       such services, xinetd keeps listening for new requests so that  it  can
       spawn  new  servers.   On  the  other  hand,  the second group includes
       services for which the service daemon is responsible for  handling  all
       new  connection requests.  Such services are called single-threaded and
       xinetd will stop handling new requests for them until the server  dies.
       Services in this group are usually datagram-based.

       So  far,  the  only  reason  for the existence of a super-server was to
       conserve system resources by avoiding to fork a lot of processes  which
       might  be  dormant  for  most of their lifetime.  While fulfilling this
       function, xinetd takes advantage of  the  idea  of  a  super-server  to
       provide  features  such  as  access  control and logging.  Furthermore,
       xinetd is not limited to services listed in /etc/services.   Therefore,
       anybody can use xinetd to start special-purpose servers.

OPTIONS

       -d     Enables debug mode. This produces a lot of debugging output, and
              it makes it possible to use a debugger on xinetd.

       -syslog syslog_facility
              This option enables syslog logging of  xinetd-produced  messages
              using  the  specified  syslog  facility.  The following facility
              names are  supported:  daemon,  auth,  user,  local[0-7]  (check
              syslog.conf(5)  for their meanings).  This option is ineffective
              in debug mode since  all  relevant  messages  are  sent  to  the
              terminal.

       -filelog logfile
              xinetd-produced  messages  will be placed in the specified file.
              Messages are always appended to the file.  If the file does  not
              exist,  it will be created.  This option is ineffective in debug
              mode since all relevant messages are sent to the terminal.

       -f config_file
              Determines the file that  xinetd  uses  for  configuration.  The
              default is /etc/xinetd.conf.

       -pidfile pid_file
              The   process  ID  is  written  to  the  file.  This  option  is
              ineffective in debug mode.

       -dontfork
              Tells xinetd to stay in the  foreground  rather  than  detaching
              itself,  to  support  being  run  from init or daemontools. This
              option automatically sets -stayalive (see below).

       -stayalive
              Tells xinetd to stay running even if no services are  specified.

       -limit proc_limit
              This option places a limit on the number of concurrently running
              processes that can be started by  xinetd.   Its  purpose  is  to
              prevent process table overflows.

       -logprocs limit
              This option places a limit on the number of concurrently running
              servers for remote userid acquisition.

       -version
              This option causes xinetd to print out its version  information.

       -inetd_compat
              This option causes xinetd to read /etc/inetd.conf in addition to
              the standard xinetd config files.  /etc/inetd.conf is read after
              the standard xinetd config files.

       -inetd_ipv6
              This  option  causes xinetd to bind to IPv6 (AF_INET6) addresses
              for inetd compatibility lines (see previous option).  This  only
              affects how /etc/inetd.conf is interpreted and thus only has any
              effect if the -inetd_compat option is also used.

       -cc interval
              This option instructs xinetd  to  perform  periodic  consistency
              checks on its internal state every interval seconds.

       The  syslog  and  filelog  options  are mutually exclusive.  If none is
       specified, the default is syslog using the daemon facility.  You should
       not  confuse  xinetd messages with messages related to service logging.
       The latter are logged only if this is specified via  the  configuration
       file.

CONTROLLING XINETD

       xinetd  performs certain actions when it receives certain signals.  The
       actions associated with  the  specific  signals  can  be  redefined  by
       editing config.h and recompiling.

       SIGHUP         causes  a  hard reconfiguration, which means that xinetd
                      re-reads  the  configuration  file  and  terminates  the
                      servers  for  services  that  are  no  longer available.
                      Access control is performed again on running servers  by
                      checking  the  remote  location, access times and server
                      instances. If the number of server instances is lowered,
                      some  arbitrarily  picked  servers  will  be  killed  to
                      satisfy the limit; this will happen  after  any  servers
                      are terminated because of failing the remote location or
                      access time checks.  Also, if  the  INTERCEPT  flag  was
                      clear  and  is set, any running servers for that service
                      will be terminated; the purpose of  this  is  to  ensure
                      that  after  a  hard  reconfiguration  there  will be no
                      running servers that can accept packets  from  addresses
                      that do not meet the access control criteria.

       SIGQUIT        causes program termination.

       SIGTERM        terminates   all   running  servers  before  terminating
                      xinetd.

       SIGUSR1        causes an internal state dump (the default dump file  is
                      /var/run/xinetd.dump;   to  change  the  filename,  edit
                      config.h and recompile).

       SIGABRT        causes an internal consistency check to verify that  the
                      data  structures  used  by  the  program  have  not been
                      corrupted.  When the  check  is  completed  xinetd  will
                      generate a message that says if the check was successful
                      or not.

       On reconfiguration the log files are closed and reopened.  This  allows
       removal of old log files.

FILES

       /etc/xinetd.conf    default configuration file
       /var/run/xinetd.dump
                           default dump file

SEE ALSO

       inetd(8),

       xinetd.conf(5),

       xinetd.log(5)

       http://cr.yp.to/daemontools.html

AUTHOR

       Panos Tsirigotis, CS Dept, University of Colorado, Boulder Rob Braun

PRONUNCIATION

       zy-net-d

                                 14 June 2001