Why services.db?

[Victor Sudakov]

Tim Daneliuk wrote:
> 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?

Isn't it for use in nsswitch.conf? 

/etc/nsswitch.conf can use databases instead of plain files, probably to
speed up lookup.

> 
> - Can it be safely removed?

Unless you use "services: db" in /etc/nsswitch.conf, then probably it's
safe to remove. If you do, you'd better keep the database up-to-date.

-- 
Victor Sudakov,  VAS4-RIPE, VAS47-RIPN
2:5005/49 at fidonet http://vas.tomsk.ru/
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