/etc/services on AIX

[Thomas Xu]

Hi there,
Even as an AIX professional for years, I'm still not quite clear of the
usage/function of file /etc/services, such as when will it be referenced,
...

Can anybody explain in detail?
Many thanks,
Thomas

[Ben Kamen]

One example that is my understanding (and possibly in error) is that
inetd uses it.

Look at my config for inetd.conf

imaps stream tcp nowait root /usr/local/etc/imapd
/usr/local/etc/imapd

The first item is the name of the service as refernced in /etc/services.

so if someone connected to say port 993 (IMAPS)
Then inetd would look to see if it has an entry for 993 which it's told
is IMAPS. So it looks in it's config that it read in from inetd.conf and
finds that imaps maps to a streaming protocol that's TCP based and
should be executed as root and then the path to the file.

Sooooo...

That would be one explanation. I'm not sure what other programs would
use it.. but I since I consider /etc/services to be one of those "good
places to define things for system reference.." I would expect anything
you'd want to do when adding a port to the system should be put in
the services file.

-Ben

[Bigi Brada]

RTM,

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/doc_link/en_US/a_doc_lib/files/aixfiles/servic
es.htm

good luck!
bb

--

Ben Kamen <bkamen-...@benjammin.net> wrote in message
news:3CB9B5...@benjammin.net...

[Villy Kruse]

On Sun, 14 Apr 2002 17:04:15 GMT,
Ben Kamen <bkamen-...@benjammin.net> wrote:

>
> That would be one explanation. I'm not sure what other programs would
>use it.. but I since I consider /etc/services to be one of those "good
>places to define things for system reference.." I would expect anything
>you'd want to do when adding a port to the system should be put in
>the services file.
>

If you do "telnet xxx.com smtp" you would use /etc/services to look up
smtp. Any other place where you specify a service port by name you
use /etc/services to translate that to a port number. However, there
are lots of services around which doesn't reflect as an entry in the
/etc/services file, and there are lots of entries in /etc/services
which is no longer used if they ever have been.

Villy

[Thomas Xu]

Say, on boxA, you are doing "telnet xxx.com smtp" , the file "/etc/services"
on which boxes will be refered to? boxA or xxx.com ?

Thanks,
Thomas

"Villy Kruse" <v...@pharmnl.ohout.pharmapartners.nl> wrote in message
news:slrnabl3j...@pharmnl.ohout.pharmapartners.nl...

[Villy Kruse]

On Mon, 15 Apr 2002 23:16:22 GMT,
Thomas Xu <zhen...@rogers.com> wrote:

>Say, on boxA, you are doing "telnet xxx.com smtp" , the file "/etc/services"
>on which boxes will be refered to? boxA or xxx.com ?
>

As the telnet has no access but to the local /etc/services, then it will
access the file that is on the same system as the one you run telnet on.
All except if you have nis handle the services mapping.

Villy