xref: /freebsd/share/man/man5/services.5 (revision 95eb4b873b6a8b527c5bd78d7191975dfca38998)
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31.Dd April 29, 2024
32.Dt SERVICES 5
33.Os
34.Sh NAME
35.Nm services
36.Nd internet service name and port number data base
37.Sh DESCRIPTION
38The
39.Nm
40file contains information regarding
41the known services available in the
42Internet.
43For each service a single line should be present
44with the following information:
45.Bd -unfilled -offset indent
46official service name
47port number
48protocol name
49aliases
50.Ed
51.Pp
52Items are separated by any number of blanks and/or tab characters.
53The port number and protocol name are considered a single
54.Em item ;
55a ``/'' is used to
56separate the port and protocol (e.g.\& ``512/tcp'').
57A ``#'' indicates the beginning of
58a comment; subsequent characters up to the end of the line are
59not interpreted by the routines which search the file.
60.Pp
61Service names may contain any printable
62character other than a field delimiter, newline,
63or comment character.
64.Pp
65If
66.Dq db
67is specified as source in the
68.Xr nsswitch.conf 5 ,
69.Pa /var/db/services.db
70is searched.
71The database in
72.Pa /var/db/services.db
73needs to be updated with
74.Xr services_mkdb 8
75after changes to the services file have been applied.
76.Sh NIS INTERACTION
77Access to the NIS
78.Pa services.byname
79map can be enabled by adding a single ``+'' on a line by itself
80in the
81.Pa /etc/services
82file.
83This causes the contents of the NIS services map to be inserted
84at the location where the ``+'' appears.
85.Sh FILES
86.Bl -tag -width /etc/services -compact
87.It Pa /etc/services
88The
89.Nm
90file resides in
91.Pa /etc .
92.El
93.Sh SEE ALSO
94.Xr getservent 3 ,
95.Xr nsswitch.conf 5 ,
96.Xr services_mkdb 8
97.Sh HISTORY
98The
99.Nm
100file format appeared in
101.Bx 4.2 .
102.Sh BUGS
103A name server should be used instead of a static file.
104