Manual Pages for UNIX Darwin command on man rpcgen

RPCGEN(1) BSD General Commands Manual RPCGEN(1)

NAME

rrppccggeenn - Remote Procedure Call (RPC) protocol compiler

SYNOPSIS

rrppccggeenn infile

rrppccggeenn [-DD [name=value]] [-AA] [-MM] [-TT] [-KK secs] infile

rrppccggeenn [-LL] -cc | -hh | -ll | -mm | -tt | -SScc | -SSss | [-oo outfile] [infile]

rrppccggeenn -cc | nettype [-oo outfile] [infile]

rrppccggeenn -ss | netid [-oo outfile] [infile]

DESCRIPTION

rrppccggeenn is a tool that generates C code to implement an RPC protocol. The input to rrppccggeenn is a language similar to C known as RPC Language (Remote

Procedure Call Language). rrppccggeenn is normally used as in the first synop-

sis where it takes an input file and generates up to four output files. If the infile is named proto.x, then rrppccggeenn will generate a header file

in proto.h, XDR routines in protoxdr.c, server-side stubs in

protosvc.c, and client-side stubs in protoclnt.c. With the -TT option,

it will also generate the RPC dispatch table in prototbl.i. With the

-SScc option, it will also generate sample code which would illustrate how

to use the remote procedures on the client side. This code would be cre-

ated in protoclient.c. With the -SSss option, it will also generate a

sample server code which would illustrate how to write the remote proce-

dures. This code would be created in protoserver.c. The server created can be started both by the port monitors (for example, inetd or listen) or by itself. When it is started by a port monitor, it creates servers only for the transport for which the file descriptor 0 was passed. The name of the transport must be specified by setting up the environmental variable PMTRANSPORT. When the server generated by rrppccggeenn is executed, it creates server handles for all the transports specified in NETPATH environment variable, or if it is unset, it creates server handles for all the visible transports from /etc/netconfig file. Note: the transports are chosen at run time and not at compile time.

When the server is self-started, it backgrounds itself by default. A

special define symbol RPCSVCFG can be used to run the server process in foreground. The second synopsis provides special features which allow for the creation of more sophisticated RPC servers. These features

include support for user provided #defines and RPC dispatch tables. The

entries in the RPC dispatch table contain: + pointers to the service routine corresponding to that procedure, + a pointer to the input and output arguments, + the size of these routines A server can use the dispatch table to check authorization and then to execute the service routine; a client library may use it to deal with the details of storage management and XDR data conversion. The other three synopses shown above are used when one does not want to generate all the output files, but only a particular one. Some examples

of their usage is described in the EXAMPLE section below. When rrppccggeenn is

executed with the -ss option, it creates servers for that particular class

of transports. When executed with the -nn option, it creates a server for

the transport specified by netid. If infile is not specified, rrppccggeenn accepts the standard input. The C preprocessor, cpp(1) is run on the input file before it is actually

interpreted by rrppccggeenn For each type of output file, rrppccggeenn defines a spe-

cial preprocessor symbol for use by the rrppccggeenn programmer: RPCHDR defined when compiling into header files RPCXDR defined when compiling into XDR routines

RPCSVC defined when compiling into server-side stubs

RPCCLNT defined when compiling into client-side stubs

RPCTBL defined when compiling into RPC dispatch tables

Any line beginning with `%' is passed directly into the output file,

uninterpreted by rrppccggeenn. For every data type referred to in infile rrppccggeenn assumes that there exists a routine with the string ``xdr'' prepended to the name of the data type. If this routine does not exist in the RPC/XDR library, it must be provided. Providing an undefined data type allows customization of XDR routines. OOPPTTIIOONNSS

-aa Generate all the files including sample code for client and

server side.

-bb This generates code for the SunOS 4.1 style of RPC. This is the

default.

-CC Generate code in ANSI C. This option also generates code that

could be compiled with the C++ compiler.

-cc Compile into XDR routines.

-DD name[=value]

Define a symbol name. Equivalent to the #define directive in the

source. If no value is given, value is defined as 1. This option may be specified more than once.

-hh Compile into C data-definitions (a header file). The -TT option

can be used in conjunction to produce a header file which sup-

ports RPC dispatch tables.

-KK secs

By default, services created using rrppccggeenn wait 120 seconds after servicing a request before exiting. That interval can be changed

using the -KK flag. To create a server that exits immediately

upon servicing a request, ``-KK 0'' can be used. To create a

server that never exits, the appropriate argument is ``-KK -1''.

When monitoring for a server, some port monitors, like the AT&T System V.4 UNIX utility listen(1), always spawn a new process in response to a service request. If it is known that a server will be used with such a monitor, the server should exit immediately

on completion. For such servers, rrppccggeenn should be used with ``-KK

-1''.

-LL Server errors will be sent to syslog instead of stderr.

-ll Compile into client-side stubs.

-mm Compile into server-side stubs, but do not generate a mmaaiinn() rou-

tine. This option is useful for doing callback-routines and for

users who need to write their own mmaaiinn() routine to do initial-

ization.

-NN Use the newstyle of rrppccggeenn. This allows procedures to have mul-

tiple arguments. It also uses the style of parameter passing that closely resembles C. So, when passing an argument to a

remote procedure you do not have to pass a pointer to the argu-

ment but the argument itself. This behaviour is different from the oldstyle of rrppccggeenn generated code. The newstyle is not the default case because of backward compatibility.

-nn netid

Compile into server-side stubs for the transport specified by

netid. There should be an entry for netid in the netconfig data-

base. This option may be specified more than once, so as to com-

pile a server that serves multiple transports.

-oo outfile

Specify the name of the output file. If none is specified, stan-

dard output is used (-cc -hh -ll -mm -nn -ss modes only)

-SScc Generate sample code to show the use of remote procedure and how

to bind to the server before calling the client side stubs gener-

ated by rrppccggeenn.

-SSss Generate skeleton code for the remote procedures on the server

side. You would need to fill in the actual code for the remote procedures.

-ss nettype

Compile into server-side stubs for all the transports belonging

to the class nettype. The supported classes are netpath, visible, circuitn, circuitv, datagramn, datagramv, tcp, and udp [see rpc(3) for the meanings associated with these classes. Note: BSD currently supports only the tcp and udp classes]. This option may be specified more than once. Note: the transports are chosen at run time and not at compile time.

-TT Generate the code to support RPC dispatch tables.

-tt Compile into RPC dispatch table.

The options -cc, -hh, -ll, -mm, -ss, and -tt are used exclusively to generate a

particular type of file, while the options -DD and -TT are global and can

be used with the other options. NNOOTTEESS

The RPC Language does not support nesting of structures. As a work-

around, structures can be declared at the top-level, and their name used

inside other structures in order to achieve the same effect. Name clashes can occur when using program definitions, since the apparent scoping does not really apply. Most of these can be avoided by giving unique names for programs, versions, procedures and types.

The server code generated with -nn option refers to the transport indi-

cated by netid and hence is very site specific. EEXXAAMMPPLLEE The command

$ rpcgen -T prot.x

generates the five files: prot.h, protclnt.c, protsvc.c, protxdr.c and prottbl.i.

The following example sends the C data-definitions (header file) to stan-

dard output.

$ rpcgen -h prot.x

To send the test version of the -DTEST, server side stubs for all the

transport belonging to the class datagramn to standard output, use:

$ rpcgen -s datagramn -DTEST prot.x

To create the server side stubs for the transport indicated by netid tcp, use: