Introduction
Many network enabled Linux applications don't rely on themselves to provide restricted access or bind to a particular TCP port; instead they often offload a lot of this work to a program suite made just for this purpose, xinetd.
Managing xinetd Programs
The xinetd RPM is installed by default in Fedora Linux and uses /etc/xinetd.conf as its main configuration file. Fortunately you usually don't have to edit this file so that day to day xinetd operation is frequently limited to only starting and stopping xinetd managed applications.
Controlling xinetd
The starting and stopping of the xinetd daemon is controlled by the by scripts in the /etc/init.d directory and its behavior at boot time is controlled by chkconfig.
You can start/stop/restart xinetd after booting by using the following commands:
[root@bigboy tmp]# service xinetd start[root@bigboy tmp]# service xinetd stop[root@bigboy tmp]# service xinetd restart
To get xinetd configured to start at boot you can use the chkconfig command.
[root@bigboy tmp]# chkconfig xinetd on
Controlling xinetd-Managed Applications
Xinetd-managed applications all store their configuration files in the /etc/xinetd.d directory. Each configuration file has a disable statement that you can set to yes or no. This governs whether xinetd is allowed to start them or not.
You don't have to edit these files to activate or deactivate the application. The chkconfig command does that for you automatically will also stops or starts the application accordingly too! Here is an example of the activation and deactivation of the Samba SWAT web GUI management application.
[root@bigboy tmp]# chkconfig swat on[root@bigboy tmp]# chkconfig swat off
