on my linux machine I see the following: iptables -L Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT) target     prot opt source               destination Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT) target     prot opt source               destination Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT) target     prot opt source               destinationbut from /etc/sysconfig/iptables I see many rules so my question isif from   iptables -L I see all are ACCEPTdose this mean the /etc/sysconfig/iptables rules are not relevant ?
linux + iptables + /etc/sysconfig/iptables
linux;rhel;iptables;firewall
The rules in /etc/sysconfig/iptables are loaded when the iptables service is started.Since your firewall chains appear empty, there's probably nothing in there.  Do not that there could rules set like the nat and raw tables.If you change the rules directly in /etc/sysconfig/iptables, you need to restart the iptables service and inversely if you add rules dynamically with iptables, you may wish to save them with iptables-save.