File: inetutils.info,  Node: Built-in services,  Next: TCPMUX,  Prev: Configuration file,  Up: inetd invocation

19.3 Built-in services
======================

The 'inetd' program provides several "trivial" services internally by
use of routines within itself.  All these services can operate both in
'stream' and in 'dgram' mode.  They are:

echo
     Send back to the originating source any data received from it.
     This is a debugging and measurement tool.

discard
     Silently throw away any data received.

chargen
     This is a character generator service.  It can be operated as both
     stream or dgram service.  When operating in 'stream' mode, once a
     connection is established a stream of data is sent out the
     connection (and any data received is thrown away).  This continues
     until the calling user terminates the connection.  When operating
     in 'dgram' mode, 'inetd' listens for UDP datagrams, and for each
     received datagram, answers with a datagram containing a random
     number (between 0 and 512) of characters.  Any data in the received
     datagram are ignored.

daytime
     Send back the current date and time in a human readable form.  Any
     input is discarded.

time
     Send back the current date and time as a 32-bit integer number,
     nrepresenting the number of seconds since midnight, January 1,
     1900.