NAME

       /etc/dnetd.conf - DECnet objects file

DESCRIPTION

       /etc/dnetd.conf is an ASCII file which contains the description of the objects known to the DECnet super-
       server dnetd.

       There is one entry per line, and each line has the format:

              Name  Number Authenticate User command

       The field descriptions are:

              Name      The  name  of  the  object.  For  numbered  objects  this appears only for documentation
                        purposes. For named objects it is the actual object name. There is a special object name
                        * which can execute an arbitrarily named program or script (see later).

              Number    the DECnet object number. These numbers should match the well-known object numbers in  a
                        VMS object database. If the object number is zero then the name is used. There should be
                        no duplicate object numbers in the file apart from number 0.

              Authenticate
                        Whether  to  authenticate incoming connections. This flag should be a Y or N. If it is Y
                        then incoming connections will be authenticated either  by  the  username  and  password
                        given on the remote command line or by the DECnet proxy database decnet.proxy.  If it is
                        N then the next field specifies the username that the daemon will be run as.

              Username  The username that daemon will be run as if the incoming command is not authenticated (ie
                        the Authenticate flag is set to N). if this username does not exist, and Authenticate is
                        set to N then incoming connections for that object will fail.

              Command   This  is  the name and arguments of the command to run when a connection is received for
                        the object. If it is the string "internal" then the object will be handled by  dnetd  if
                        it can. Currently only MIRROR and arbitrary TASKs can be handled internally by dnetd.
                        If the name starts with a slash then it is assumed to be the full path of the program to
                        run. If not then dnetd will search its default directory for program files.

NOTES

       When  an  incoming  connection is handled by dnetd it forks and executes the command named in the command
       field with stdin and stdout pointing to the DECnet socket. stderr will be set to  /dev/null.  The  DECnet
       daemons  supplied  in  the  dnprogs  suite  automatically  detect  this  and  so can be run from dnetd or
       standalone.
       There is a subtle difference between objects handled by the special name * and those explicitly named  in
       the file:
       Objects  handled  by name "*" internally are run under control of a pseudo-tty which means they appear to
       be talking to a terminal and CR/LF conversion will be done so that TYPE "0=TASK"  will  produce  sensible
       output on VMS.
       Objects  explicitly  named  just  connect  directly  to the DECnet socket so cannot take advantage of tty
       services and do not have CR/LF conversion done for them. Of course these objects are more secure  because
       the system administrator has total control over which objects can be run.
       dnetd  will convert all task names to lower case. This is for convenience more than anything else because
       VMS converts them to uppercase and all uppercase files names are unwieldy on Unix.
       It is recommended that arbitrary objects be run as a special anonymous user to avoid security problems.
       Any changes to /etc/dnetd.conf will take effect immediately you do not need to tell  dnetd  that  it  has
       changed.

EXAMPLE

       This is the default file provided. Note that the "*" object is commented out for security reasons.
          # /etc/dnetd.conf
          #
          # name         number     auth?     user       command
          #
          FAL            17         Y         none       fal
          MIRROR         25         Y         root       internal
          MAIL           27         N         vmsmail    vmsmaild
          CTERM          42         N         root       ctermd
          DTERM          23         N         root       rmtermd
          # *               0         Y         none       internal

SEE ALSO

       decnet.proxy(5), dnetd(8)

DECnet for Linux                                 5 December 1999                                   DNETD.CONF(5)