identd(1M)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 port (113).

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.