title: why does iptables don't show rules?
body: <p>A have a simple question about iptables. I have a centos machine with the following content in /etc/sysconfig/iptables:</p>
  
  <pre><code># Generated by iptables-save v1.4.7 on Tue Dec 17 14:19:35 2013
  *filter
  :INPUT ACCEPT [0:0]
  :FORWARD ACCEPT [0:0]
  :OUTPUT ACCEPT [2774:229756]
  -A INPUT -m state --state RELATED,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT 
  -A INPUT -p icmp -j ACCEPT 
  -A INPUT -i lo -j ACCEPT 
  -A INPUT -p tcp -m state --state NEW -m tcp --dport 22 -j ACCEPT 
  -A INPUT -j REJECT --reject-with icmp-host-prohibited 
  -A FORWARD -j REJECT --reject-with icmp-host-prohibited 
  COMMIT
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>but when I type iptables -L at the shell prompt, I see this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>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               destination
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>why do I see a the chains without rules? what's the behavior of iptables in this case?
  thanks in advance</p>