How To Install xinetd on Ubuntu 18.04

In this tutorial we learn how to install xinetd on Ubuntu 18.04. xinetd is replacement for inetd with many enhancements

Introduction

In this tutorial we learn how to install xinetd on Ubuntu 18.04.

What is xinetd

xinetd is:

xinetd has access control mechanisms, extensive logging capabilities, the ability to make services available based on time, and can place limits on the number of servers that can be started, among other things.

It has the ability to redirect TCP streams to a remote host and port. This is useful for those of that use IP masquerading, or NAT, and want to be able to reach your internal hosts.

It also has the ability to bind specific services to specific interfaces. This is useful when you want to make services available for your internal network, but not the rest of the world. Or to have a different service running on the same port, but different interfaces.

There are three methods to install xinetd on Ubuntu 18.04. We can use apt-get, apt and aptitude. In the following sections we will describe each method. You can choose one of them.

Install xinetd Using apt-get

Update apt database with apt-get using the following command.

sudo apt-get update

After updating apt database, We can install xinetd using apt-get by running the following command:

sudo apt-get -y install xinetd

Install xinetd Using apt

Update apt database with apt using the following command.

sudo apt update

After updating apt database, We can install xinetd using apt by running the following command:

sudo apt -y install xinetd

Install xinetd Using aptitude

If you want to follow this method, you might need to install aptitude first since aptitude is usually not installed by default on Ubuntu. Update apt database with aptitude using the following command.

sudo aptitude update

After updating apt database, We can install xinetd using aptitude by running the following command:

sudo aptitude -y install xinetd

How To Uninstall xinetd on Ubuntu 18.04

To uninstall only the xinetd package we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get remove xinetd

Uninstall xinetd And Its Dependencies

To uninstall xinetd and its dependencies that are no longer needed by Ubuntu 18.04, we can use the command below:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove xinetd

Remove xinetd Configurations and Data

To remove xinetd configuration and data from Ubuntu 18.04 we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y purge xinetd

Remove xinetd configuration, data, and all of its dependencies

We can use the following command to remove xinetd configurations, data and all of its dependencies, we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove --purge xinetd

References

Summary

In this tutorial we learn how to install xinetd package on Ubuntu 18.04 using different package management tools: apt, apt-get and aptitude.