SUMMARY: exec/tcp: unknown service (during system startup)

From: Gilbert E. Detillieux (gedetil@silver.cs.UManitoba.CA)
Date: Sat Mar 20 1993 - 02:43:39 CST


Dear Sun-Managers,
   Well, once again, thanks for coming through with the answer.

My original message:
> I'm running SunOS 4.1.1 with various patches on a network of various models
> of SPARCstations, with a SPARCstation 2 acting as the server for NFS and NIS.
>
> Occasionally, but not consistently, when a client workstation reboots, I get
> errors such as the following:
>
> Feb 9 17:18:18 potassium inetd[114]: exec/tcp: unknown service
> Feb 9 17:18:18 potassium lpd[117]: printer/tcp: unknown service
>
> The actual services it complains about are defined, both in the local
> /etc/services file and in the NIS services map on the server. Also the
> unknown services it complains about change from one reboot to another, if
> they show up at all. (Sometimes it's login/tcp or shell/tcp, etc.)
...
> Has anyone else come across this one? Any ideas on what I should try next?

I got a large number of replies, that basically all said the same thing.
The solution, as for many of the NIS maps, is to make sure you have no blank
lines in the source file for that map.

(I had come across that problem with the netgroup map, but the blank line
caused things to fail consistently in that case.)

There were a couple reasons why I didn't think about such a simple solution.
First of all, the blank lines had been in my /etc/services file almost from
day 1, and the problem only showed up much later (likely when I upgraded
from 4.0.3 to 4.1.1). Also, since the problem was intermittent, I suspected
it was timing or load related.

I've made the fixes to my services map, and have yet to see if it cures the
problem. I'm confident it will, given the number of responses I got.

Thanks to the following people for their replies:

        mueller@darmstadt.gmd.de (Lothar Mueller)
        halvard@trd.sdata.no (Halvard Halvorsen)
        tkevans@eplrx7.es.duPont.com (Tim Evans)
        lamour@maestro.mitre.org (Michael Lamoureux)
        "Marc P. Rinfret" <Marc.Rinfret@eng.canadair.ca>
        shandelm@jpmorgan.com (Joel Shandelman)
        drl@vuse.vanderbilt.edu (David R. Linn)
        "Douglas L. Acker" <dla@se05.wg2.waii.com>
        canuck@masc38.rice.edu (Mike Pearlman)
        mandrews@vcrt.hq.videocart.com (Mike Andrews)
        macphed@dvinci.usask.ca (Ian MacPhedran)
        lbd@mhcnet.att.com
        david@srv.PacBell.COM (David St. Pierre)
        Christopher Hoover <ch@lks.csi.com>
        bogart@bpb.it (Max Lanfranconi - R and D)
        Geert Jan de Groot <geertj@ica.philips.nl>

-- 
Gilbert E. Detillieux			Internet: <gedetil@cs.umanitoba.ca>
Dept. of Computer Science		 or  <Gilbert_Detillieux@umanitoba.ca>
University of Manitoba			Phone: (204)474-8161 or 8313(messages)
Winnipeg, MB, CANADA  R3T 2N2		Fax:   (204)269-9178
    "I'm not politically incorrect, I'm just euphemistically challenged."



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