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+# Serving via inetd
+
+A Fossil server can be launched on-demand by `inetd` by  using the
+[`fossil http`](/help/http) command. To do so, add a line like the
+following to its configuration file, typically `/etc/inetd.conf`:
+
+    80 stream tcp nowait.1000 root /usr/bin/fossil /usr/bin/fossil http /home/fossil/repo.fossil
+
+In this example, you are telling `inetd` that when an incoming
+connection appears on TCP port 80 that it should launch the program
+`/usr/bin/fossil` with the arguments shown.  Obviously you will need to
+modify the pathnames for your particular setup.  The final argument is
+either the name of the fossil repository to be served or a directory
+containing multiple repositories.
+
+If you use a non-standard TCP port on systems where the port
+specification must be a symbolic name and cannot be numeric, add the
+desired name and port to `/etc/services`.  For example, if you want your
+Fossil server running on TCP port 12345 instead of 80, you will need to
+add:
+
+    fossil          12345/tcp  # fossil server
+
+and use the symbolic name “`fossil`” instead of the numeric TCP port
+number (“12345” in the above example) in `inetd.conf`.
+
+Notice that we configured `inetd` to launch Fossil as root. See the
+top-level section on “[The Fossil Chroot
+Jail](../../chroot.md)” for the consequences of this and
+alternatives to it.
+
+You can instead configure `inetd` to bind to a higher-numbered TCP port,
+allowing Fossil to be run as a normal user. In that case, Fossil will
+not put itself into a chroot jail, because it assumes you have set up
+file permissions and such on the server appropriate for that user.
+
+The `inetd` daemon must be enabled for this to work, and it must be
+restarted whenever its configuration file changes.
+
+This is a more complicated method than the [standalone HTTP server
+method](./none.md), but it has the advantage of only using system
+resources when an actual connection is attempted.  If no one ever
+connects to that port, a Fossil server will not (automatically) run. It
+has the disadvantage of requiring "root" access, which may not be
+available to you, either due to local IT policy or because of
+restrictions at your shared Internet hosting service.
+
+For further details, see the relevant section in your system's
+documentation. The FreeBSD Handbook covers `inetd` in [this
+chapter](https://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/handbook/network-inetd.html).
+
+*[Return to the top-level Fossil server article.](../)*