Discard Protocol - Inetd Implementation

Inetd Implementation

On most UNIX-like operating systems a discard server is built into the inetd (or xinetd) daemon. The discard service is usually not enabled by default. It may be enabled by adding the following lines to the file /etc/inetd.conf and reloading the configuration:

discard stream tcp nowait root internal discard dgram udp wait root internal

The Discard Protocol is the TCP/UDP equivalent of the Unix filesystem node /dev/null. Such a service is guaranteed to receive what is sent to it and can be used for debugging TCP and/or UDP code requiring a guaranteed reception of payload sent.