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Disabling FTP in Unix

We're trying to keep FTP from listening on our HP UX system. We do this by commenting it out in services and in inetd, but after this happens we cannot establish a FTP (client) connection to another server. Are we doing this right? We want to be able to use FTP, but not have it listening on port 21.

Also, can anyone explain the difference between commenting out in services and commenting out in inetd.conf?

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PsiCop

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kryptotech

ASKER

Just to be clear, will FTP still say listening even if it's disabled in inetd?

yuzh

>>will FTP still say listening even if it's disabled in inetd?

No!
after you edit the inetd.conf, you should restart inetd or reboot the box.

PsiCop

As yuzh says, changes to inetd.conf require that you restart the inetd daemon, or reboot the server, in order to be effective. I'm not familiar with HP-UX so I'll default to suggesting a reboot.

inetd.conf is only read upon inetd's initialization.

Tintin

Just a side note about /etc/services.

Entries in /etc/inetd.conf refer to service names defined in /etc/services. If you remove/comment the entry in /etc/services, it means the associated entry in /etc/inetd.conf won't work.

PsiCop

Good point - another reason not to futz with /etc/services.