INETD question

[Alan Meyer_4]

What happens when I restart inetd via /sbin/init.d/inetd stop/start as oppose to issueing a inetd -c

...and...

What are the ramifications of doing a stop/restart while users are connected to the system? Do they get completely disconnected and processes terminated? or do they just experience a momentary lapse in communication?

[James R. Ferguson · Accepted solution]

Hi Alan:

'inetd -c' actually stops and then starts the 'inetd' daemon. A 'kill -hup' is sent.

This is really the same as running the '/sbin/init.d/inetd' twice, once with "stop" and then again with "start".

The 'inetd' daemon is called the "super daemon" and its role is only to startup TCPIP processes as defined in the 'inetd.conf' configuration file. If one (e.g FTP) is running, nothing happens to it. It (the FTP process, for example) is an independent process itself once launched by 'inetd'. Nothing gets terminated as you asked.

Regards!

...JRF...

[A. Clay Stephenson]

When you issue an inetd -c, what really happens is that a SIGHUP is sent to inetd (kill -1 inetd_PID) and the signal handler then triggers a reread of the inetd.conf file and a subsequent reconfiguration. Most flavors of UNIX don't have the -c option and simply rely on responding to a kill -1.
A new process is not spawned. This is the preferred way.

Your plan B actually kills the inetd process and starts another. The child processes should continue although the signal handling of the child death now gets done by process 1 (init) rather than inetd.

If you have a choice, do the kill -1 (or inetd -c) because that is what the inetd designers intended.

[john kingsley]

/sbin/init.d/inetd stop
would stop inetd. This means that any daemon listed in inetd.conf (telnet, ftp etc..) could not be started. However, any process already started by inetd would be unaffected. As you said, you would only experience a momentary lapse in communication.

[Alan Meyer_4]

Well, I had tried inetd -c and did not get the problem resolution I had hoped, to I have not tried a stop/restart and still no resolution so I will be opening a new thread with the main problem. Thanks for the help!!!

[Alan Meyer_4]

Closeing down for now, comw see us later under a new and improved thread....

[Alan Meyer_4]

Man, my typing is atrocious...

I DID then do a stop/restart and still did not get a resolution...


and I was closing not closeing the thread ARGH!!! I need to go home and get up all over again....