PROTOCOLS(5) | File Formats Manual | PROTOCOLS(5)

# NAME

`protocols` — protocol name database

# DESCRIPTION

The `protocols` file contains information regarding the known protocols used in the Internet. For each protocol, a single line should be present with the following information:

    official protocol name
    protocol number
    aliases

Items are separated by any number of blanks and/or tab characters.

A hash mark (‘`#`’) indicates the beginning of a comment; subsequent characters up to the end of the line are not interpreted by the routines which search the file.

Protocol names may contain any printable character other than a field delimiter, newline, or comment character.

# FILES

/etc/protocols

# SEE ALSO

getprotoent(3)

# HISTORY

The `protocols` file format appeared in 4.2BSD.

# BUGS

A name server should be used instead of a static file. Lines in /etc/protocols are limited to `BUFSIZ` characters (currently 1024). Longer lines will be ignored.

March 3, 2019 | Debian