Introduction
libservices is a simple library, written in C, to access and edit the /etc/services file. While editing, it allows one to add, remove and change services preserving existent file proprieties (comments, blank lines, etc). While accessing information, it allows one to access usual informations and also comments.
A command line utility is also provided, making /etc/services easily accessible through shell scripts.
Why?
libservices was born as a proof of concept, when working on the Linuxconf tool. The idea was having several auxiliary libraries which did specific configuration tasks, and the configuration tool would serve as an aggregator and user interface for such libraries. Unfortunately, interests changed and libservices is the only product of this idea.
It's still useful for its original purpose: configurators and package pre/post installation scripts.