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Groups > alt.os.linux.slackware > #35601

inetutils for Slackware

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This is another one of those things that I've been running for years and
wish was a part of base Slackware. Slackware gets alot of its support
for older TCPIP tools from multiple packages: the net-kit stuff,
net-tools, iputils and others. Many of these are unmaintained. Then
there's inetd and sysklog. If you use inetutils, you don't need almost
all of that. It's just one package. This is a Slack build (but not a
SlackBuild) for Slackware Current (but likely works on 15).

Pros:
- inetutils is a mature GNU project that changes little
- inetutils is being actively maintained (there was a release recently)
- inetutils can install with Linux caps, thus increasing security
because setruid binaries are no longer needed. Consider the recent
dirty.frag vulns for a reason why to avoid setruid
- inetutils has a larger collection of utilities
- inetutuls has an texinfo file detailing all the tools in one place

Cons:
- some conflicts with net-kit, net-tools (uninstall or let them be
clobbered)
- two 'pings', you can leave both /bin/ping and /usr/bin/ping or delete
the old one at /bin/ping if you are confident
- ifconfig does not support ipv6 (I left it off the build list for this
reason) so the net-tools one is still needed if you care about ifconfig

inetutils works well with xinetd, rsyslog, and iproute2 (which is how I
have it setup) though inetutil's inetd and syslogd are fully usable.

Note no setruid:
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root   root        60632 May 30 14:44  traceroute*
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root   root       145368 May 30 14:44  telnet*
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root   root        68560 May 30 14:44  talk*
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root   root        56400 May 30 14:44  rsh*
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root   root        60752 May 30 14:44  rlogin*
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root   root        56464 May 30 14:44  rexec*
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root   root        64696 May 30 14:44  rcp*
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root   root        65528 May 30 14:44  ping6*
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root   root        74648 May 30 14:44  ping*
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root   root       136920 May 30 14:44  ftp*
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root   root        55896 May 30 14:44  dnsdomainname*

getcap /usr/bin/rlogin
/usr/bin/rlogin cap_net_bind_service=eip
getcap /usr/bin/ping
/usr/bin/ping cap_net_raw=eip

Old way:
ls -l /bin/ping
-rws--x--x 1 root root 164216 Jun  5  2025 /bin/ping*

Full functionality without setruid:
/usr/bin/ping -c 2 kirin.lan
PING kirin (192.168.20.4): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 192.168.20.4: icmp_seq=0 ttl=255 time=5.397 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.20.4: icmp_seq=1 ttl=255 time=7.032 ms
--- kirin ping statistics ---
2 packets transmitted, 2 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 5.397/6.215/7.032/0.817 ms

rlogin kirin
$ show system /noproc
OpenVMS V7.3  on node KIRIN  30-MAY-2026 16:03:45.64  Uptime  9 20:32:48
$ logout
rlogin: Connection to kirin closed normally.03:54.69

traceroute fatalis.lan
traceroute to fatalis (192.168.20.59), 64 hops max
  1   192.168.20.59  1.440ms  1.348ms  1.362ms
  

I know approaching zero people will actually use this, and Slackware
would never consider it, but once I have a project in mind I have to
complete it so here we are.

ftp://atr2.ath.cx/pub/operating-systems/linux/slackbuilds/inetutils.tar.gz
PGP in inetutils.tar.gz.asc

Note inetutils wants gnulib from GIT, unlike days past when this was
included in the source archive. The script handles all of this and is
explained at the top of inetutils.SlackBuild . A blacklist snippet is
also suggested for you if you use slackpkg (I do). The pulling down of
the GIT repo (for gnulib) only happens once, during bootstrap; the
script checks for the existance of a source directory and doesn't do it
again if it doesn't have to. 

A detailed buildlog is kept as well, so if something goes wrong you can
see what it was.

cat BuildLog.txt 
++++ Sat May 30 14:43:19 EDT 2026 building inetutils
        VERSION -> v2.8
        DIRVER -> v2.8
        TARARCH -> inetutils-v2.8-src.tar.gz
        BUILD -> 1_jayjwa
        NUMJOBS ->  -j9 
        ARCH -> x86_64
        CC -> ccache gcc
        CFLAGS -> -pipe -O2
        TMP -> /tmp
        PKG -> /tmp/package-inetutils
Opening source tar archive
Source code tree available
Configured 
Running make 
Packaging the files and binaries
Loaded docs
Populated /install/ subdir
Moving binaries into place and cleaning up unused dirs
Man pages zipped
Binaries stripped for size
++++ inetutils build complete at Sat May 30 14:44:33 EDT 2026

-- 
PGP Key ID: 781C A3E2 C6ED 70A6 B356  7AF5 B510 542E D460 5CAE
       "The Internet should always be the Wild West!"

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inetutils for Slackware jayjwa <jayjwa@atr2.ath.cx.invalid> - 2026-05-30 16:35 -0400
  Re: inetutils for Slackware Henrik Carlqvist <Henrik.Carlqvist@deadspam.com> - 2026-05-31 11:24 +0000
    Re: inetutils for Slackware kaukasoina3dore73js4@sci.fi (Petri Kaukasoina) - 2026-05-31 12:27 +0000
      Re: inetutils for Slackware kaukasoina3dore73js4@sci.fi (Petri Kaukasoina) - 2026-05-31 12:55 +0000
    Re: inetutils for Slackware jayjwa <jayjwa@atr2.ath.cx.invalid> - 2026-05-31 18:27 -0400
      Re: inetutils for Slackware Henrik Carlqvist <Henrik.Carlqvist@deadspam.com> - 2026-06-01 05:24 +0000
  Re: inetutils for Slackware Marco Moock <mm@dorfdsl.de> - 2026-05-31 19:36 +0200
    Re: inetutils for Slackware Henrik Carlqvist <Henrik.Carlqvist@deadspam.com> - 2026-06-01 05:28 +0000
  Re: inetutils for Slackware Sylvain Robitaille <syl@therockgarden.ca> - 2026-06-01 04:41 +0000

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