Chapter 4.
Starting Servers
The bulk of this book (specifically, href="http:// /?xmlid=0-201-77423-2/part02#part02"> Parts II and href="http:// /?xmlid=0-201-77423-2/part03#part03"> III ) deals with
the operation of a wide variety of servers. These programs should normally be
accessible at all times once a computer has booted, aside from any scheduled
downtime or restrictions you might impose for security reasons. It's therefore
important that you understand how servers are started. Without this knowledge,
you might find yourself unable to start a server once you've installed it, or
unable to restart a server after making changes to its configuration.Fortunately, in many cases Linux configures
things so that a server starts automatically after it's installed, or at least
once you reboot the computer after installing the server. There are three major
methods you can use to start a server on a regular basis: via System V (SysV)
startup scripts; via a super server, such as inetd or xinetd ; or via
a local startup script. You can always configure any of these methods by
manually editing the appropriate configuration files or scripts. With most
distributions, you can also accomplish the task through the use of GUI tools. This
chapter covers all these methods of starting servers. Subsequent chapters refer
back to this one to convey how a specific server is most commonly started.