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From: barmar@think.com (Barry Margolin)
Newsgroups: alt.sys.sun,comp.windows.x
Subject: /etc/protocols (was Re: Xkernel can't find NFS mounted directories)
Message-ID: <1990Dec6.052343.22445@Think.COM>
Date: 6 Dec 90 05:23:43 GMT
References: <EVAN.90Dec5171522@murgon.cs.mu.OZ.AU> <1990Dec5.225824.10377@melba.bby.oz.au>
Sender: news@Think.COM
Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge MA, USA
Lines: 19

In article <1990Dec5.225824.10377@melba.bby.oz.au> gnb@bby.oz.au (Gregory N. Bond) writes:
>4.1 needs a file in /etc called protocols containing the following
>stuff:
...
>Now, why in EARTH put that in a file?  IS sun afraid that the protocol
>numbers are about to change.....????????

Neither are TCP and UDP port numbers, but they're in a file (actually, an
NIS map these days) as well.

One benefit of putting all these things in configuration files is that it
makes it easy to debug new implementations.  While debugging you might not
want to bother or be bothered by other implementations, so you could edit
/etc/protocols to specify your own protocol number.
--
Barry Margolin, Thinking Machines Corp.

barmar@think.com
{uunet,harvard}!think!barmar