uninstall-xinetd

The Extended Internet Service Daemon, xinetd, allows you to start services on request. This can be useful, allowing you to host many different network based services, while xinetd is the only daemon running. When a network request arrives, xinetd determines which service to start and relay the request to. If this kind of functionailty is not needed, it is recommended to uninstall it. An alternative to xinetd is systemd, with the socket activation feature. Since most Linux systems use systemd already, you don’t have to install and rely on an extra piece of software, if you use that.

Recommendation: Uninstall xinetd (by default) wherever it is not needed. If some hosts need to use xinetd, explicitly define them. Consider using systemd socket activation instead of xinetd.

Example

If you try installing the package(s) and running the agent with this module, you should see it get uninstalled:

$ apt install xinetd
$ cf-agent -KI
    info: Successfully removed package 'xinetd'

Adding exceptions

If this package is really needed on some hosts, you can add an exception with the exception_uninstall_xinetd class. This class can be set within def.json (Augments), from policy, or in the Host specific data section in host info pages inside Mission Portal, the CFEngine Enterprise Web UI.