Could anyone answer a few questions concerning a problem I have with my xinetd. I am using RH 7.1 and when I get the status of xinetd is says "xinetd dead but pid file exists". When I check the log messages it says:-
"xinetd: missing service keyword [line 15]" and
"xinetd: missing } in last service entry [line 18]"
I have 3 files called xinetd one in /etc/rc.d/init.d which is a binary. One in /var/lock/subsys and the other in /usr/sbin which is a text file I have that looked at. My questions are these. How do you count the line numbers, ie are hashed and empty lines counted? Whichever way I count I cannot see an error with lines 15 or 18.
Am I looking at the right file, could it be the binary file that has the problem?
Also if the file is damaged can it be repaired or could I just get another ccopy of it?


Thanking you in advance

If I'm reading your post correctly then it looks like you have a few things messed up.
First of all when it comes with the message "xinetd dead but pid file exists". It means the process isn't running but there is still a pid file somewhere. I assume that would be the file /var/lock/subsys/xinetd. You could check the contents of the file and it should contain just a number which would have been it's last pid. If that's the case then you can safely remove that file, which should get rid of the first message.

Now the rest is a bit confusing. The /usr/sbin directory is where you would store binary files. And the /etc/rc.d/init.d directory is where you usually store script files which start and stop services. So the binary file should be in /usr/sbin and the script in the other directory.
Then for the messages in the log file. Depending on how it's set up there can be one global config file called something like /etc/xinetd.conf. Or there can also be a directory which contains a file per service. Usually the directory is something like /etc/xinet.d
I don't have redhat but you should look for one of those to correct the files. And usually comment lines are counted.

try service xinetd restart


and then service xinetd status

what is the output?

mik
Sorry I told you wrong about the location of the files the binary one is in /usr/sbin and the text one is etc/rc.d/init.d
There is a pid file and it does, as you say, contain a number. This number is not mentioned when I type ps -ef. I have deleted this file but it is re-created everytime I start xinetd.
I am still confused about the line numbering because line 15 in the text file is hashed out which makes me wonder if it is the binary file that causes the problem.

baranero
When I type service xinetd restart the response is:-
Stopping xinetd: [FAILED]
Starting xinetd: [ ok ]
and the status is the same as before ie
"xinetd dead but pid file exists"

Thanks

Well the file should be created every time you start up xinetd. But it should also be removed when xinetd is stopped. Obviously that is what's not working properly.
Which file are you looking in for the configuration of the services? It shouldn't be the one in /etc/rc.d/init.d. That's just a start/stop script for the daemon. The configuration files are in one of the locations I mentioned before.

mik
I have found the xinetd.conf file it was, as you said, in /etc. I deleted all the blank lines so it was easier to count then commented out the offending lines and it is now working.
So I was looking at the wrong file all along (what a idiot)

Thank you for your help

hi ,
I'm trying to access CVS on server from remote system i get the following error message ,
******************************************
Logging in to server:admin@localhost:2401/home/cvs/repository
CVS password:
cvs [login aborted]: connect to localhost(127.0.0.1):2401 failed: Connection refused
********************************************

when i did the root cause analysis i found that the service xinetd is not working properly

[root@ODC admin]# /sbin/service xinetd status
xinetd is stopped
[root@ODC admin]# /sbin/service xinetd stop
Stopping xinetd: [FAILED]
[root@ODC admin]# /sbin/service xinetd start
Starting xinetd: [ OK ]


so i could not figure out what is wrong with the service

can you please help me to solve this issue ?

regards
apj

i was facing similar kind of problem and in my case it was vsftp file which was causing the crashing of xinetd service.

edit and cofigure it correctly, restart xinetd and now it is working ok.