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HOSTS_OPTIONS(5)	       File Formats Manual		HOSTS_OPTIONS(5)

NAME
     hosts_options - host access control language extensions

DESCRIPTION
     This  document  describes	optional extensions to the language described in
     the hosts_access(5) document. The extensions are enabled at  program  build
     time.  For  example, by editing the Makefile and turning on the PROCESS_OP-
     TIONS compile-time option.

     The extensible language uses the following format:

	daemon_list : client_list : option : option ...

     The first two fields are described in the hosts_access(5) manual page.  The
     remainder of the rules is a list of zero or more options.	Any ":"  charac-
     ters within options should be protected with a backslash.

     An  option  is  of  the  form  "keyword"  or  "keyword  value". Options are
     processed in the specified order. Some options are subjected  to  %<letter>
     substitutions.  For  the  sake of backwards compatibility with earlier ver-
     sions, an "=" is permitted between keyword and value.

LOGGING
     severity mail.info

     severity notice
	    Change the severity level at which the event will be logged.  Facil-
	    ity names (such as mail) are optional, and are not supported on sys-
	    tems  with	older syslog implementations. The severity option can be
	    used to emphasize or to ignore specific events.

ACCESS CONTROL
     allow

     deny   Grant (deny) service. These options must appear  at  the  end  of  a
	    rule.

     The  allow  and  deny  keywords make it possible to keep all access control
     rules within a single file, for example in the hosts.allow file.

     To permit access from specific hosts only:

	ALL: .friendly.domain: ALLOW
	ALL: ALL: DENY

     To permit access from all hosts except a few trouble makers:

	ALL: .bad.domain: DENY
	ALL: ALL: ALLOW

     Notice the leading dot on the domain name patterns.

RUNNING OTHER COMMANDS
     spawn shell_command
	    Execute, in a child process, the specified shell command, after per-
	    forming the %<letter> expansions described	in  the  hosts_access(5)
	    manual  page.  The command is executed with stdin, stdout and stderr
	    connected to the null device, so that it won't mess up the conversa-
	    tion with the client host. Example:

	       spawn (/some/where/safe_finger -l @%h | /usr/ucb/mail root) &

	    executes,  in  a  background  child  process,  the	 shell	 command
	    "safe_finger  -l  @%h | mail root" after replacing %h by the name or
	    address of the remote host.

	    The example uses the "safe_finger" command instead	of  the  regular
	    "finger"  command,	to  limit  possible damage from data sent by the
	    finger server. The "safe_finger" command is part of the daemon wrap-
	    per package; it is a wrapper around the regular finger command  that
	    filters the data sent by the remote host.

     twist shell_command
	    Replace  the  current  process by an instance of the specified shell
	    command, after performing the %<letter> expansions described in  the
	    hosts_access(5) manual page.  Stdin, stdout and stderr are connected
	    to the client process. This option must appear at the end of a rule.

	    To send a customized bounce message to the client instead of running
	    the real ftp daemon:

	       in.ftpd : ... : twist /bin/echo 421 Some bounce message

	    For  an alternative way to talk to client processes, see the banners
	    option below.

	    To run /some/other/in.telnetd without polluting its command-line ar-
	    ray or its process environment:

	       in.telnetd : ... : twist PATH=/some/other; exec in.telnetd

	    Warning:  in case of UDP services, do not twist to commands that use
	    the standard I/O or the  read(2)/write(2)  routines  to  communicate
	    with the client process; UDP requires other I/O primitives.

NETWORK OPTIONS
     keepalive
	    Causes the server to periodically send a message to the client.  The
	    connection	is  considered	broken when the client does not respond.
	    The keepalive option can be useful when users turn off their machine
	    while it is still connected to a server.  The  keepalive  option  is
	    not useful for datagram (UDP) services.

     linger number_of_seconds
	    Specifies  how long the kernel will try to deliver not-yet delivered
	    data after the server process closes a connection.

USERNAME LOOKUP
     rfc931 [ timeout_in_seconds ]
	    Look up the client user name with the RFC 931 (TAP, IDENT, RFC 1413)
	    protocol.  This option is silently ignored in case of services based
	    on transports other than TCP.  It requires that  the  client  system
	    runs  an  RFC 931 (IDENT, etc.) -compliant daemon, and may cause no-
	    ticeable delays with connections from non-UNIX clients.  The timeout
	    period is optional. If no timeout is specified  a  compile-time  de-
	    fined default value is taken.

MISCELLANEOUS
     banners /some/directory
	    Look  for a file in `/some/directory' with the same name as the dae-
	    mon process (for example in.telnetd for  the  telnet  service),  and
	    copy  its contents to the client. Newline characters are replaced by
	    carriage-return newline, and %<letter> sequences are  expanded  (see
	    the hosts_access(5) manual page).

	    The tcp wrappers source code distribution provides a sample makefile
	    (Banners.Makefile) for convenient banner maintenance.

	    Warning: banners are supported for connection-oriented (TCP) network
	    services only.

     nice [ number ]
	    Change  the nice value of the process (default 10).  Specify a posi-
	    tive value to spend more CPU resources on other processes.

     setenv name value
	    Place a (name, value) pair into the process environment.  The  value
	    is subjected to %<letter> expansions and may contain whitespace (but
	    leading and trailing blanks are stripped off).

	    Warning:  many network daemons reset their environment before spawn-
	    ing a login or shell process.

     umask 022
	    Like the umask command that is built into the shell. An umask of 022
	    prevents the creation of files with group and  world  write  permis-
	    sion.  The umask argument should be an octal number.

     user nobody

     user nobody.kmem
	    Assume  the  privileges  of  the  "nobody" userid (or user "nobody",
	    group "kmem"). The first form is useful with  inetd  implementations
	    that run all services with root privilege. The second form is useful
	    for services that need special group privileges only.

DIAGNOSTICS
     When  a  syntax  error is found in an access control rule, the error is re-
     ported to the syslog daemon; further options will be ignored,  and  service
     is denied.

SEE ALSO
     hosts_access(5), the default access control language

AUTHOR
     Wietse Venema (wietse@wzv.win.tue.nl)
     Department of Mathematics and Computing Science
     Eindhoven University of Technology
     Den Dolech 2, P.O. Box 513,
     5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands

								HOSTS_OPTIONS(5)

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