Louis Dupree wrote:
>
> What is a deamon?
>
> Louis
> Louis J. Dupree Jr. W4NRG
> 3015 Englewood Dr.
> Kinston, NC 28504
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> http://wwp.icq.com/187690
Short Answer:
A child process whose parent has died. That is the way I heard it.
Long Answer:
Basically a deamon is a program that runs in the back background and
(ussually) provides
services to other clients on the network. The httpd stands for hyper
text transfer protocol deamon.
The server side software the netscape or other browsers will connect
to. Also ftpd (file transfer protrocol deamon).
When you use ftp command, to stay server.org the ftpd(eamon) is what
will accept your connection.
Not all deamons though are servers, (a decent amount though). Example
there is all the syslogd, (system log deamon) the program or deamon that
logs a good chunck of your system.
You can run a deamon in 2 ways, stand alone, or from inetd. If you run
the deamon as a stand alone it will always be loading in memory and
always doing it thing (where it thing could be listening for
connections, or logging the system, etc.) Example of this is apache
(httpd). PS. (most stand alone deamons run from /etc/init.d |
/sbin/init.d | /etc/rc?.d
The second way is from inetd. Basically the inet deamons runs 24-7 and
is always loaded into memory and listens for the deamons it is in charge
of. For example, lets use ftpd. If you don't have a busy ftp site you
can put the ftpd to run on inetd. When I client ftp program tries to
connect on port 23 of you server, inetd picks the request and loads the
ftpd into memory to take care of the connection from there.
This way, ftpd doesn't have to be loaded into memory 24-7 and take up
resources when in not in use. But the service will still be avaible
24-7 when they are needed. everything from inetd has to be a network
program that listens to connects. Config inetd though /etc/inetd.conf
Jack
