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NAME

       protocols - the protocols definition file

DESCRIPTION

       This  file is a plain ASCII file, describing the various DARPA internet
       protocols that are available from the TCP/IP subsystem.  It  should  be
       consulted  instead  of using the numbers in the ARPA include files, or,
       even worse, just guessing  them.   These  numbers  will  occur  in  the
       protocol field of any IP header.

       Keep  this  file  untouched  since changes would result in incorrect IP
       packages.  Protocol  numbers  and  names  are  specified  by  the  IANA
       (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority).

       Each line is of the following format:

              protocol number aliases ...

       where  the  fields  are  delimited  by spaces or tabs.  Empty lines are
       ignored.  If a line contains a hash mark (#), the  hash  mark  and  the
       part of the line following it are ignored.

       The field descriptions are:

       protocol
              the  native name for the protocol.  For example ip, tcp, or udp.

       number the official number for this protocol as it will  appear  within
              the IP header.

       aliases
              optional aliases for the protocol.

       This  file  might  be  distributed  over a network using a network-wide
       naming service like Yellow Pages/NIS or BIND/Hesiod.

FILES

       /etc/protocols
              The protocols definition file.

SEE ALSO

       getprotoent(3)

       http://www.iana.org/assignments/protocol-numbers

COLOPHON

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