xfs running with no x session

[Rick Stevens]

Bruce McDonald wrote:
> Hello Rick
> 
> On 21-May-04, you wrote:
> 
> 
>>Bruce McDonald wrote:
>>
>>>Hello Rick
>>>
>>>On 21-May-04, you wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>Bruce McDonald wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>Hello,
>>>
>>>
>>>>>I was just checking what services were listening to ports on my machine
>>>>>and noticed that xfs (the font server, not the filesystem) was
>>>>>listening. Is this normal behaviour when there is not an x session
>>>>>running?
>>>
>>>
>>>>Yes, but it should be running on a local Unix-domain socket, not over
>>>>TCP/IP.
> 
> 
> 
>>>It is running on a Unix socket. Having sent the previous question I
>>>figured that it must listen for X to start and then call the font server.
>>>It is good to be sure though.
> 
> 
>>Actually it's quite the opposite.  X depends on having xfs handle fonts
>>for it, but xfs is not dependent on X in any way beyond X's font
>>directories.
> 
> 
> Ok, so xfs runs constantly in the background waiting for calls from X to
> serve fonts.  And obviously, X makes no calls unless it is running.

Yup.  That's about it.

> Somehow I got myself thinking it acted like xinetd listening for a call and
> then starting the appropriate deamon.....   Don't ask how I confused
> myself.  I don't know.  heheh

xinetd only deals with TCP/IP connections.  It can be difficult to split
Unix sockets from network sockets in your head.  However, it's Friday
and you're excused.

> Just wait til I start asking firewall questions!  <evil grin>

No!  NO-O-O-O!  Run away!  Run away! :-p

Actually, before you get too concerned, try taking a look at firestarter
(http://firestarter.sourceforge.net).  It's a nice GUI iptables
configuring tool.  I roll my own iptables stuff, but I'm weird (as
everyone on the list knows).
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- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-  Memory is the second thing to go, but I can't remember the first! -
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