.: Advanced Linux Networking :.

Traditionally, inetd has been the super server used on Linux systems. Since 2000, however, a shift has begun toward the use of an alternative, xinetd (pronounced "zi-net-dee"). As a first approximation, you can think of xinetd as being a combination of inetd and TCP Wrappers. This is only a rough analogy, though; there are things that xinetd can do that inetd with TCP Wrappers can't do, and things that inetd with TCP Wrappers can do that xinetd alone can't do. In the end, though, xinetd is more flexible because it can be combined with TCP Wrappers, if required, to extend its flexibility. In early 2002, Red Hat and Mandrake are the two major distributions that use xinetd by default, but you can add xinetd to other distributions if you like.