HP-UX Reference (11i v2 04/09) - 1 User Commands N-Z (vol 2)
r
rpcgen(1) rpcgen(1)
NAME
rpcgen - an RPC protocol compiler
SYNOPSIS
rpcgen [-u] infile
rpcgen [-a][-b
][-C][-Dname[=value]] [-i
size][-I [-K seconds]] [-L][
-M][-N][-T][-u]
[
-Y pathname ] infile
rpcgen [-c|-h|
-l|-m|-t|-Sc|-Ss|-Sm
][-o outfile][infile]
rpcgen [-o outfile][
-s nettype ][-u][infile]
rpcgen [-n netid][-o
outfile][-u][infile]
DESCRIPTION
rpcgen is a tool that generates C code to implement an RPC protocol. The input to
rpcgen is a
language similar to C known as RPC Language (Remote Procedure Call Language).
rpcgen is normally used as in the first synopsis where it takes an input file and generates three output
files. If the infile is named
proto.x, then rpcgen generates a header in proto.h, XDR routines in
proto_xdr.c, server-side stubs in proto_svc.c, and client-side stubs in
proto_clnt.c. With the
-T option, it also generates the RPC dispatch table in proto_tbl.i.
rpcgen can also generate sample client and server files that can be customized to suit a particular appli-
cation. The -Sc, -Ss and -Sm options generate sample client, server and makefile, respectively. The
-a
option generates all files, including sample files. If the infile is proto.x, then the client side sample file
is written to
proto_client.c
, the server side sample file to proto_server.c and the sample
makefile to
makefile.proto
.
The server created can be started both by the port monitors (for example,
inetd or listen)orbyitself.
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 environment variable
PM_TRANSPORT. When the server generated by rpcgen 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
RPC_SVC_FG 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. See the EXAMPLES section below for examples of
rpcgen usage. When
rpcgen is executed with the -s option, it creates servers for that particular class of transports. When
executed with the -n option, it creates a server for the transport specified by netid .Ifinfile is not
specified, rpcgen accepts standard input.
The C preprocessor,
cc -E is run on the input file before it is actually interpreted by rpcgen. For each
type of output file,
rpcgen defines a special preprocessor symbol for use by the rpcgen programmer:
RPC_HDR defined when compiling into headers
RPC_XDR defined when compiling into XDR routines
RPC_SVC defined when compiling into server-side stubs
RPC_CLNT defined when compiling into client-side stubs
RPC_TBL defined when compiling into RPC dispatch tables
Any line beginning with
% is passed directly into the output file, uninterpreted by rpcgen.Tospecify
the path name of the C preprocessor use -Y option.
For every data type referred to in infile,
rpcgen 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
HP-UX 11i Version 2: September 2004 − 1 − Hewlett-Packard Company Section 1−−811