(Lack of) update-inetd functionality with xinetd
------------------------------------------------

The update-inetd script is used by Debian packages which rely on inetd.  The
purpose of the script is to update /etc/inetd.conf so that the network
service(s) provided by the package in question are added or enabled.

Beginning with 1:2.3.11-2, xinetd is shipped with an optional inetd.conf
compatibility mode. That is, xinetd reads xinetd.conf, then inetd.conf and
adds services accordingly. So, when this mode is used, and that a service
is added by update-inetd to inetd.conf, xinetd can be reloaded, and the
service becomes available through xinetd, without an xinetd.conf
modification.

To enable the inetd.conf compatibility mode, you can edit
/etc/default/xinetd and add -inetd_compat or -inetd_ipv6 to XINETD_OPTS

However, you will want to put some services' configurations in xinetd.conf to
customize them.

Since the update-inetd script currently does not modify /etc/xinetd.conf,
instead telling the user to do this manually, there are two ways of converting
your inetd.conf file into xinetd.conf file : either with the xconv.pl script,
or with the itox program, both provided by xinetd.


 * Using itox
   
   The following command will output the appropriate xinetd.conf entry for
   this service, so you can add the output to xinetd.conf yourself:

   	echo "line from /etc/inetd.conf" | itox

   However, if the service uses a daemon such as /usr/sbin/tcpd, then this
   should be specified using the "-daemon_dir" option.  This example:

	echo "smtp stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/tcpd /usr/sbin/in.smtpd" \
	 | itox -daemon_dir /usr/sbin/tcpd

   would produce this:

	service smtp
	{
	        socket_type     = stream
	        protocol        = tcp
	        wait            = no
	        user            = root
	        server          = /usr/sbin/in.smtpd
	}

 * Using xconv.pl

   Mostly everything said above, regarding itox, also applies to xconv.pl -
   the only difference is that xconv.pl is a Perl script, a bit newer than
   than itox, and made exactly for the purpose of converting whole
   inetd.conf file into xinetd.conf file. It's best to invoke it this way:

	xconv.pl < /etc/inetd.conf > /etc/xinetd.conf

   This will read the whole inetd.conf file and create full xinetd.conf
   file.

You should also read the inetd.conf and xinetd.conf manual pages, and this will
hopefully make more sense.

Work is currently being done on a new update-inetd which will automatically
take care of everything, but that hasn't been implemented just yet.


 -- Norbert Veber <nveber@debian.org>  Tue, 9 June 1998 22:18:25 -0500
    Josip Rodin <jrodin@jagor.srce.hr>  Wed, 20 Oct 1999 20:56:07 +0200
    Thomas Seyrat <tomasera@debian.org>  Fri, 15 Aug 2003 17:39:58 +0200