topic Re: Script / inetd in Operating System - HP-UX

Script / inetd

Junior C. — Mon, 31 Jul 2000 13:24:56 GMT

I want to check and see if inetd is running every hour. If not running start inetd.

This is what I have so far.

inedtrunning=$(ps -ef | grep inetd | grep /usr

if [[ -n ${inetdrunning} ]]
then
---------------------
else
---------------------
fi
unset inetdrunning

Thanks, for all help in advance

Re: Script / inetd

John Palmer — Mon, 31 Jul 2000 13:34:34 GMT

To cut out a grep:-

inetdrunning=$(ps -e|grep inetd)

if [[ -n ${inetdrunning ]];
...

I must confess however that I have never had a server where inetd died. I would be looking to HP to cure the problem if that was the case.

Regards,

John

Re: Script / inetd

James R. Ferguson — Mon, 31 Jul 2000 13:47:03 GMT

Junior:

OOPS! Forgot the closing tick mark:

if (( `ps -ef|grep $WHAT|grep -c -v "grep $WHAT"` > 0 ))

...JRF...

Re: Script / inetd

James R. Ferguson — Mon, 31 Jul 2000 13:47:33 GMT

Junior:

I'm not sure why you are worried that the superdaemon is/isn't running as it seems you would have/detect lots of problems if it wasn't.

However, one general way to test if a particular process is running is to do the following:

WHAT=inetd
if (( `ps -ef|grep $WHAT|grep -c -v "grep $WHAT" > 0 ))
then
echo "$WHAT running"
else
echo "$WHAT not running"
fi

...JRF...

Re: Script / inetd

Vikas Khator — Mon, 31 Jul 2000 17:19:44 GMT

You may want to add a entry in /etc/inittab so that it gets spawned if one isn't running already

Re: Script / inetd

curt larson — Tue, 01 Aug 2000 16:48:35 GMT

As has been mentioned here, inetd doesn't die. Look at what inetd has been patched for. You'll find that it hangs, blocks, loops out of control, issues timeouts, doesn't behave well under a heavy load, etc. Your method of checking for the process running will not catch any of these. And they happen often enough that HP has issued a patch for them. And the list doesn't include dieing unexpectedly, but that could be what the next patch is issued for.

I'd suggest using a method that will verify that inetd is acutally working. Such as running, telnet $(hostname) 13, which will return the system time. Although, you'll have to devise a method for testing. ie I don't know of a broken inetd that you can test against for error messages. Can a hung inetd be stopped and restarted? etc.

Using such a method will not only catch inetd not running, but other error conditions also.