Why services.db?

[Tim Daneliuk]

Back in the olden daze, services where defined in /etc/services.

I came upon a rather large /var/db/services.db that seems somehow obliquely
related to this but I am unclear on a few things:

- Why does this file exist?  What problem is it solving?

- Can it be safely removed?

- Does it need periodic regeneration, and if so, how? (There is some
  hint there with services_mkdb, but I - again - am unclear on the
  overall concept.)

TIA...