PROTOCOLS(5)                                        Linux Programmer's Manual                                       PROTOCOLS(5)



NAME
       protocols - the protocols definition file

DESCRIPTION
       This  file is a plain ASCII file, describing the various DARPA internet protocols that are available from the TCP/IP sub-
       system.  It should be consulted instead of using the numbers in the ARPA include files, or,  even  worse,  just  guessing
       them.  These numbers will occur in the protocol field of any IP header.

       Keep  this  file untouched since changes would result in incorrect IP packages.  Protocol numbers and names are specified
       by the IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority).

       Each line is of the following format:

              protocol number aliases ...

       where the fields are delimited by spaces or tabs.  Empty lines are ignored.  If a line contains a hash mark (#), the hash
       mark and the part of the line following it are ignored.

       The field descriptions are:

       protocol
              the native name for the protocol.  For example ip, tcp, or udp.

       number the official number for this protocol as it will appear within the IP header.

       aliases
              optional aliases for the protocol.

       This file might be distributed over a network using a network-wide naming service like Yellow Pages/NIS or BIND/Hesiod.

FILES
       /etc/protocols
              The protocols definition file.

SEE ALSO
       getprotoent(3)

       http://www.iana.org/assignments/protocol-numbers

COLOPHON
       This  page  is  part of release 3.25 of the Linux man-pages project.  A description of the project, and information about
       reporting bugs, can be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.



Linux                                                      2008-09-23                                               PROTOCOLS(5)