On Thu, 9 May 2013, Olwe Bottorff wrote:

> I'm working with a programming language that wants to use x/inetd. What 
> is it and what is it for? My research says it's for "internet," and then 
> talks above my head. Can anyone explain it in basic terms and give 
> examples of its use? For example, here's one explanation: 
>
> xinetd listens for incoming requests over a network and launches the 
> appropriate service for that request.[2] Requests are made using port 
> numbers as identifiers and xinetd usually launches another daemon to 
> handle the request. It can be used to start services with both 
> privileged and non-privileged port numbers.
>
> Any "best/typical" uses I could peruse?


I haven't used it for Xvnc, but I think that is one of the things that 
some people have been doing.  I don't use it because I just keep an Xvnc 
session always running.  With xinetd, it will startup an Xvnc session in 
response to the connection (or so I believe).  Anyway, here's something:

http://wwerther.de/2011/08/xvncxinetd/

I'm not sure of how they deal with security issues (haven't read it).  I 
use Xvnc, but only allow connections from localhost, then I use ssh 
port-forwarding to make a tunnel for the vnc connection.  Example:

#!/bin/bash

ssh -f -L 25901:127.0.0.1:5901 me at my.box sleep 1
vncviewer -FullScreen -FullColor 127.0.0.1::25901 &> /dev/null &

Mike