WHOSON.CONF(5) WHOSON WHOSON.CONF(5)NAMEwhoson.conf - whoson configuration file
SYNOPSYS
/etc/whoson.conf
DESCRIPTIONwhoson.conf is the file that controls operation of both whosond(8) dae‐
mon and whoson(3) API functions.
General structure
whoson.conf file contains of a serias of entries. Each entry starts
with a line containing the word server or client from the first posi‐
tion, followed by a word specifying the entry type. Then, there may
follow arbitrary number of keyword=value pairs, in the same line or in
the continuation lines. Continuation lines start with whitespace.
Hash (#) character specify the logical end of the line; comment may
follow. All-whitespace lines are ignored.
Server entry
There are currently 5 types of server entries: tcp, udp, unix, unixd,
and global.
tcp server entry must contain port=number keyword-value pair and may
contain keepalive=number, allow=pattern, deny=patternand listenq=number
pairs.
udp server entry must contain port=number keyword-value pair and may
contain allow=patternand deny=pattern pairs.
unix server entry must contain port=path keyword-value pair and may
contain keepalive=numberand listenq=number pairs.
unixd server entry must contain port=path keyword-value pair.
global is a special server entry that contains parameters that are not
specific to a particular communication protocol. Currntly supported
global parameters are ttl=number, cachesize=number, user=userid,
group=group id
port=number or port=path specifies the IP port number to listen on in
dotted quad notation, or path name for UNIX domain socket.
allow=pattern and deny=pattern specify which clients are allowed to the
server. pattern is dotted quad address followed by the number of bits
to check after a slash (/) character. If that many bits of the peer IP
address matches the address specified in the pattern, the pattern is
considered matching. Of matching patterns, the one with maximum number
of bits is used. By default, all clients are denied.
keepalive=number specifies the number of seconds to keep the connection
to the client open when the client does not send any requests. This is
only applicable to streaming connection protocols.
ttl=number is the global parameter specifying the number of seconds to
keep an entry in the database if it is not deleted explicitly.
cachesize=number is the global parameter specifying the maximum number
of entries to keep in the database.
chroot=path path to chdir and chroot into after the daemon binds to the
sockets. It may be wise to set to some empty and not used by any other
processes directory. Directory must exist. Only will work if the dae‐
mon is started by root.
user=userid is the (symbolic) user id to change to after the daemon
binds to the sockets. It may be wise to set to nobody for security
reasons. Only will work if the daemon is started by root.
group=group id - the same for group. If not specified, the group of
the user is set.
listenq=number - size of listen(2) backlog queue. Defaults to 5 if not
specified.
Example:
server tcp keepalive=600
port=9876 allow=123.45.67.0/24
deny=123.45.67.89/32
Client entry
There are currently 4 types of client entries: tcp, udp, unix and
unixd.
tcp client entry must contain port=number and address=addrspec keyword-
value pairs.
udp client entry must contain port=number and address=addrspec keyword-
value pairs and may contain allow=pattern, inittimeout=number and max‐
tries=number pairs.
unix client entry must contain port=path keyword-value pair.
unixd client entry must contain port=path keyword-value pair and may
contain inittimeout=number and maxtries=number pairs.
port=number or port=path specifies the IP port number to connect in
dotted quad notation, or path name for UNIX domain socket.
address=addrspec specify the IP address of the server in dotted quad
notation.
inittimeout=number is the initical timeout in microseconds to wait for
the server responce. After timeout is expired, the request is resent
and the timeout is doubled.
maxtries=number is the number of retries to make is the server does not
respond.
allow=pattern, and deny=pattern for the udp client specify the set of
IP addresses from which the server responce is allowed. If not
present, the server address must exactly match the address value.
Specifying different set of addresses may be necessary if the server
has multiple IP interfaces and there is no way to predict which of them
will be used as the source address in the UDP packet.
All configured entries are tried in order until a working one is found.
It may be wise to avoid tcp connection protocol because of considerable
startup overhead and because if destination host is not responding, it
may take very long time for connect() to detect failure.
Example:
client udp
port=9876
address=123.45.67.89
inittimeout=200000
maxtries=3
COPYRIGHT
Public domain
SEE ALSOwhoson(3), whosond(8)WHOSON 06 Jun 1998 WHOSON.CONF(5)
