PROTOCOLS(5) File Formats Manual PROTOCOLS(5)
NAME
protocolsprotocol name data base
DESCRIPTION
The protocols file contains information regarding the known protocols used in the DARPA 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 (“#”) indicates the beginning of a comment; characters up to the end of the line are not interpreted by routines which search the file.
 
Protocol names may contain any printable character other than a field delimiter, newline, or comment character.
FILES
/etc/protocols
The protocols file resides in /etc.
SEE ALSO
HISTORY
The protocols file format appeared in 4.2BSD.
BUGS
A name server should be used instead of a static file.