Not all services have their own initialization script for starting,
stopping, and checking the status of the daemon. Some network services are
controlled by xinetd, also known as the super server. Running services through
xinetd allows the administrator to utilize xinetd features such as access control,
custom logging, and the incoming connection rate. The xinetd service listens on
all ports used by the daemons it controls. When a connection is requested,
xinetd determines if the client is allowed access. If the client is allowed access,
xinetd starts up the desired service and passes the client connection to it. The
xinetd RPM package must be installed to use this super server. If it is not,
install it via Red Hat Updates.
Configuring the xinetd Server
The xinetd super daemon uses the /etc/xinetd.conf file as the master
configuration file and the /etc/xinetd.d/ directory for configuration files per
service controlled by xinetd. This section discusses how to use these files to configure
xinetd and its services.
