identd(1M)                                                       identd(1M)




 NAME    [Toc]    [Back]
      identd - TCP/IP IDENT protocol server

 SYNOPSIS    [Toc]    [Back]
      /usr/lbin/identd [-i| -w|-b] [-tseconds] [-uuid] [-ggid] [-pport]
      [-aaddress] [-ccharset] [-n] [-o] [-e] [-l] [-V] [-m] [-N] [-d]

 DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]
      identd is a server which implements the TCP/IP proposed standard IDENT
      user identification protocol as specified in the RFC 1413 document.

      identd operates by looking up specific TCP/IP connections and
      returning the user name of the process owning the connection.

    Arguments    [Toc]    [Back]
      -i        The -i flag, which is the default mode, should be used when
                starting the daemon from inetd with the "nowait" option in
                the /etc/inetd.conf file. Use of this mode will make inetd
                start one identd daemon for each connection request.

      -w        The -w flag should be used when starting the daemon from
                inetd with the "wait" option in the /etc/inetd.conf file.
                The identd daemon will run either forever, until a timeout,
                as specified by the -t flag, occurs.

      -b        The -b flag can be used to make the daemon run in standalone
                mode without the assistance from inetd.  This mode is the
                least preferred mode, and not supported by HP, since a bug
                or any other fatal condition in the server will make it
                terminate and it will then have to be restarted manually.

      -tseconds The -tseconds option is used to specify the timeout limit.
                This is the number of seconds a server started with the -w
                flag will wait for new connections before terminating. The
                server is automatically restarted by inetd whenever a new
                connection is requested if it has terminated. A suitable
                value for this is 120 (2 minutes), if used. It defaults to
                no timeout.  That is, it will wait forever, or until a fatal
                condition occurs in the server.

      -uuid     The -uuid option is used to specify a user id number which
                the ident server should switch to after binding itself to
                the TCP/IP port if using the -b mode of operation.

      -ggid     The -ggid option is used to specify a group id number which
                the ident server should switch to after binding itself to
                the TCP/IP port if using the -b mode of operation.

      -pport    The -pport option is used to specify an alternative port
                number to bind to if using the -b mode of operation. It can
                be specified by name or by number. Defaults to the IDENT



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 identd(1M)                                                       identd(1M)




                port (113).

      -aaddress The -aaddress option is used to specify the local address to
                bind the socket to if using the -b mode of operation.  Can
                only be specified by the IP address and not by the domain
                name.  The default value in IPv4 is INADDR_ANY, and in IPv6
                it is in6addr_any, which normally represents all the local
                addresses.

      -V        The -V flag makes identd display the version number and the
                exit.

      -l        The -l flag tells identd to use the System logging daemon
                syslogd for logging purposes.

      -o        The -o flag tells identd to not reveal the operating system
                type it is run on and to instead always return "OTHER".

      -e        The -e flag tells identd to always return UNKNOWN-ERROR
                instead of the NO-USER or INVALID-PORT errors.

      -ccharset The -ccharset flags tells identd to add the optional
                (according to the IDENT protocol) character set designator
                to the reply generated. <charset> should be a valid
                character set as described in the MIME RFC in upper case
                characters.

      -n        The -n flags tells identd to always return user numbers
                instead of user names if you wish to keep the user names a
                secret.

      -N        The -N flag makes identd check for a file .noident in each
                home directory for a user which the daemon is about to
                return the user name for. It that file exists then the
                daemon will give the error HIDDEN-USER instead of the normal
                USERID response.

      -m        The -m flag makes identd use a mode of operation that will
                allow multiple requests to be processed per session. Each
                request is specified one per line and the responses will be
                returned one per line. The connection will not be closed
                until the connecting part closes its end of the line.
                Please note that this mode violates the protocol
                specification as it currently stands.

      -d        The -d flag enables some debugging code that normally should
                NOT be enabled since that breaks the protocol and may reveal
                information that should not be available to outsiders.

 INSTALLATION    [Toc]    [Back]
      identd is invoked either by the internet server (see inetd(1M)) for



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 identd(1M)                                                       identd(1M)




      requests to connect to the IDENT port as indicated by the
      /etc/services file (see services(4)) when using the -w or -i modes of
      operation or started manually by using the -b mode of operation.

 WARNINGS    [Toc]    [Back]
      The options -w and -t are currently not supported on HP-UX.

 EXAMPLES    [Toc]    [Back]
      Since the server is located in /usr/lbin/identd, you can put either:

           ident stream tcp6 wait bin /usr/lbin/identd identd -w -t120

      or:

           ident stream tcp6 nowait bin /usr/lbin/identd identd -i

      into the /etc/inetd.conf file.

      To start it using the unsupported -b mode of operation, you can put a
      line like this into the /sbin/init.d/sendmail file under the 'start'
      section:

           /usr/lbin/identd -b -u2 -g2

      This will cause identd to be started as daemon whenever sendmail is
      running. It will run in the background as user 2, group 2 (user bin,
      group bin).

 SEE ALSO    [Toc]    [Back]
      inetd.conf(4).


 Hewlett-Packard Company            - 3 -   HP-UX 11i Version 2: August 2003