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Re: qpopper through TCP wrappers [OT]
On Sat, 29 Jan 2000, Omer Efraim wrote:
> I won't be correcting you in regards to qpopper (I don't know
> it), but it's a well-established practice that you should not
> run heavily used services out of inetd, as it likes to barf
> at high loads (esentiallycutting off all the services running
> from within inet!). You'll see lots of references to this
> all over the place (I remember seeing it in an old version
> of SAG, or maybe NAG) - plus, it makes sense!
omer, you need to make one major distinction here between suggestions to
programmers and suggestions to systems administrators.
it is up to the programmer to write their server in a multiplexing manner.
if you, as a sys admin, need to use one server that was written by someone
else, you are confined to using its existing abilities. if it was written
to be launched via inetd, then that's how you'll have to run it. if it was
written so it can work either from inetd, or as its own daemon, then you,
as an administrator, have the option of checking if it's daemonized mode
is indeed more efficient (as leonid pointed out - this is not always the
case), and if so - run it like that.
now, as far as i know, all mail reading servers i've see (that'd probably
include qpopper, and one or two imap servers) are running one process per
client, and do not multiplex several clients using a single process. in
such a case, a system's administrator only option is running the pop/imap
server from inetd, and then using tcpd to actually launch the server is a
good idea, even if it incures some more overhead on the machine.
now, if you wish to show us of a pop server that works in a multiplexing
manner, and can actually scale up to supporting many clients - _that_
would be a good contribution to our knowledge. i personally will be happy
to know that. please tell us, and let us see the light :)
thanks in advance,
guy
"For world domination - press 1,
or dial 0, and please hold, for the creator." -- nob o. dy