6.31.1. Contents of Inetutils

The Inetutils package contains network clients and servers.

Installed programs: ftp, ping, rcp, rlogin, rsh, talk, telnet and tftp

6.31.2.

6.31.3. Inetutils Installation Dependencies

Inetutils depends on: Bash, Binutils, Coreutils, Diffutils, GCC, Glibc, Grep, Make, Ncurses, Sed.

6.31.4.

6.31.5. Installation of Inetutils

Prepare Inetutils for compilation:

./configure --prefix=/usr --disable-syslogd \
    --libexecdir=/usr/sbin --disable-logger \
    --sysconfdir=/etc --localstatedir=/var \
    --disable-whois --disable-servers

The meaning of the configure options:

• --disable-syslogd: This option prevents inetutils from installing the System Log Daemon, which is installed with the Sysklogd package.

• --disable-logger: This option prevents inetutils from installing the logger program, which is used by scripts to pass messages to the System Log Daemon. We do not install it because Util-linux installs a better version later.

• --disable-whois: This option disables the building of the inetutils whois client, which is woefully out of date. Instructions for a better whois client are in the BLFS book.

• --disable-servers: This disables the installation of the various network servers included as part of the Inetutils package. These servers are deemed not appropriate in a basic LFS system. Some are insecure by nature and are only considered safe on trusted networks. More information can be found at http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/view/stable/basicnet/inetutils.html. Note that better replacements are available for many of these servers.

Compile the package:

make

Install it:

make install

And move the ping program to its proper place:

mv /usr/bin/ping /bin