I want to make a service on linux distributions.

Much like cpanel i want the client to be able to type in the domain with the port number and be able to get to my service on their server. It is not a control panel and the only real way I can think to do it is, bundle a lightweight webserver set to install at the desired port and install it with my webpages that are avaliable o nthis port.

Does this sound the best way to go about it??

Yes, the only way to do this is to set a daemon to listen on that port and serve up your pages (in this case your lightweight webserver).

Scott it all depends really.

What is the 'service'?

Does it need to talk to http clients?

BTW, if it is a web service, why not just serve it over port 80 (or 443 for SSL)?

You could check out LigHTTPD. It is a fairly lightweight webserver that you could just configure to listen on a specific port and then pass the dynamic (ie: php/perl/python scripts) requests off to whatever backend you have via FastCGI.

Well it is HTTP/PHP based. SO in the perfect world i would want to link a service to the htdocs that the program/script is in. Therefore its like a domain except really it is a port.

So far the use of second small HTTP server seems the best way to go, installed on a specific non 80 based port (its going to work in conjuction with cpanel plesk etc.)

You're not mentioned what this "service" actually is...

If it's some kind of systems programming thing (say, a control panel, or other management interface) you may want to look at writing an application server rather than a CGI/whatever hooked up to a lightweight HTTP server. Java, Python, and so on have a lot of information available about writing application servers.