SERVICES(5) | File Formats Manual | SERVICES(5)

# NAME

`services` — service name data base

# DESCRIPTION

The `services` file contains information regarding the known services available in the DARPA Internet. For each service a single line should be present with the following information:

    official service name
    port number
    protocol name
    aliases

Items are separated by any number of blanks and/or tab characters. The port number and protocol name are considered a single item; a slash (‘`/`’) is used to separate the port and protocol (e.g. ‘`512/tcp`’). A hash (‘`#`’) indicates the beginning of a comment; subsequent characters up to the end of the line are not interpreted by the routines which search the file.

Service names may contain any printable character other than a field delimiter, newline, or comment character.

The database in /var/db/services.cdb needs to be updated with services_mkdb(8) after changes to the services file have been applied.

# FILES

/etc/services
  The current services file.
/var/db/services.cdb
  The current services database.

# SEE ALSO

getservent(3), services_mkdb(8)

# HISTORY

The `services` file format appeared in 4.2BSD.

# BUGS

A name server should be used instead of a static file.

February 12, 2023 | NetBSD 11.0