service (redirected from gratuitous service)

Functionality derived from a particular software program. For example, network services may refer to programs that transmit data or provide conversion of data in a network. Database services provide for the storage and retrieval of data in a database. Web services are applications that interact with each other on the Internet (see Web services).

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(networking, programming)

service - Work performed (or offered) by a server. This may mean simply serving simple requests for data to be sent or stored (as with file servers, gopher or http servers, e-mail servers, finger servers, SQL servers, etc.); or it may be more complex work, such as that of irc servers, print servers, X Windows servers, or process servers. E.g. "Access to the finger service is restricted to the local subnet, for security reasons".