xref: /freebsd/lib/libc/rpc/README (revision 97759ccc715c4b365432c16d763c50eecfcb1100)
1
2PLEASE READ THE DISCLAIMER FILE.  DO NOT CALL THE SUN MICROSYSTEMS SUPPORT
3LINE WITH QUESTIONS ON THIS RELEASE.  THEY CANNOT ANSWER QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS
4UNSUPPORTED SOURCE RELEASE.
5
6TIRPCSRC 2.3 29 Aug 1994
7
8This distribution contains SunSoft's implementation of transport-independent
9RPC (TI-RPC), External Data Representation (XDR), and various utilities and
10documentation.  These libraries and programs form the base of Open Network
11Computing (ONC), and are derived directly from the Solaris 2.3 source.
12
13Previous releases of RPC Source based on SunOS 4.x were ported to 4.2BSD and
14used Sockets as the transport interface.  These versions were
15transport-specific RPC (TS-RPC).
16
17TI-RPC is an enhanced version of TS-RPC that requires the UNIX System V
18Transport Layer Interface (TLI) or an equivalent X/Open Transport Interface
19(XTI).  TI-RPC is on-the-wire compatible with the TS-RPC, which is supported
20by almost 70 vendors on all major operating systems.  TS-RPC source code
21(RPCSRC 4.0) remains available from several internet sites.
22
23This release is a native source release, that is, it is compatible for
24building on Solaris 2.3.  This release was built on Solaris 2.3 using SunPro
25SPARCompiler 2.0.1.
26
27Solaris 2.3 is based on System V, Release 4 (SVR4), and while this release
28should be mostly compatible with other SVR4 systems, some Solaris facilities
29that are assumed may not be available.  In particular, this release uses the
30Makefile format supported by SparcCompiler 2.0.1.  Second, the Secure RPC
31routines use the Solaris Name Service Switch to access public-key credential
32databases.  This code will need to be ported if your system does not support
33the Name Service Switch.  Finally, this release uses the synchronization
34interfaces of UI Threads to make certain interfaces thread-safe.  These
35interfaces are found in libthread in Solaris 2.3 and later.
36
37Applications linked with this release's librpc must link with the United
38States domestic version of libcrypt in order to resolve the cbc_crypt() and
39ecb_crypt() functions.  These routines are used with Secure RPC however all
40RPC programs that link with this release's librpc will need to link with the
41domestic libcrypt.  Note that the Solaris 2.3 Encryption Kit is only available
42within the United States.  (PLEASE NOTE: The RPC implementation found in
43Solaris 2.3's libnsl does *not* have this requirement; linking with libcrypt
44is only a requirement for the TIRPCSRC 2.3 version of librpc.)
45
46
47DOCUMENTATION NOTE
48
49The documentation found in the doc directory are derived from the Solaris 2.3
50Network Interfaces Programming Guide.  A small number of compile examples are
51given, and these use libnsl to link in the RPC library.  This release builds
52the RPC library as librpc.  To use this release's librpc, use the link command
53"-lrpc -lnsl -lcrypt".  This links the application with TIRPCSRC 2.3's librpc
54for RPC routines, Solaris's libnsl for other networking functions, and
55libcrypt for the cbc_crypt() and ecb_crypt functions.
56
57
58WHY IS THIS RELEASE BEING DONE?
59
60This release is being distributed to make the Sun implementation of the ONC
61technologies available for reference and porting to non-Solaris platforms.
62The current release is a native source distribution, and provides services
63that are already available on Solaris 2.3 (such as the RPC headers, the RPC
64library in libnsl, rpcbind, rpcinfo, etc.).  It is not our intention to
65replace these services.  See the DISCLAIMER for further information about the
66legal status of this release.
67
68
69WHAT'S NEW IN THIS RELEASE: TIRPCSRC 2.3
70
71The previous release was TIRPCSRC 2.0.
72
731.      This release is based on Solaris 2.3.  The previous release was
74	based on Solaris 2.0.  This release contains a significant number of
75	bug fixes and other enhancements over TIRPCSRC 2.0.
76
772.      The RPC library is thread safe for all client-side interfaces
78	(clnt_create, clnt_call, etc.).  The server-side interfaces
79	(svc_create, svc_run, etc.) are not thread safe in this release. The
80	server-side interfaces will be made thread safe in the next release of
81	TIRPCSRC.  Please see the manual pages for details about which
82	interfaces are thread safe.
83
843.      As part of the work to make the RPC library thread-safe, rpcgen has
85	been enhanced to generate thread-safe RPC stubs (the -M option).  Note
86	that this modifies the call-signature for the stub functions; the
87	procedure calling the RPC stub must now pass to the stub a pointer to
88	an allocated structure where results will be placed by the stub.  See
89	the rpcgen manual page and the rpcgen Programming Guide for details.
90
914.      The Remote Asynchronous Calls (RAC) library is now included.  RAC was
92	first introduced in TIRPCSRC 1.0, and was bundled with librpc.  It is
93	now a separate library.  The asynchronous call model that RAC provides
94	can be achieved by using threads for making client-side RPC calls.
95	The ONC Technology group recommends using threads (where possible) to
96	achieve asynchrony rather than RAC.  See the rpc_rac(3n) manual page
97	for details.
98
99
100ROADMAP
101
102The directory hierarchy is as follows:
103
104    cmd/        Utilities
105    cmd/rpcgen      The RPC Language compiler (for .x files)
106    cmd/rpcbind     The RPC bindery and portmapper
107    cmd/rpcinfo     RPC bindery query utility
108    cmd/keyserv     The Secure RPC keyserver
109    cmd/demo        Some simple ONC demo services
110
111    doc/        Postscript versions of ONC documentation
112
113    head/       Header files
114    head/rpcsvc     RPCL (.x) specifications for various ONC services, and
115                    header files.
116
117    lib/        Libraries
118    lib/librpc      The RPC and XDR library
119    lib/librac      The Remote Asynchronous Calls (RAC) library
120
121    man/        Manual pages for the RPC library and utilities.
122
123    uts/common/rpc      RPC header files
124
125
126
127BUILD INSTRUCTIONS
128
129Prior to building the release, you must define the SRC environment variable
130to be the path to the top-level Makefile.  For example, if /usr/src/tirpcsrc
131is where to top-level Makefile is located, execute this command prior to
132building the release:
133
134        setenv SRC /usr/src/tirpcsrc        (csh)
135or
136        SRC=/usr/src/tirpcsrc; export SRC   (sh)
137
138The sources in the lib directory depend on header files installed from head
139and uts/common/rpc, and the programs in the cmd directory depend on libraries
140from lib.  Therefore, you should do a "make install" to build the release.
141
142The top-level Makefile builds the release.  The "ROOT" macro defines where the
143headers and libraries are installed.  The default for ROOT is "/proto".  You
144may change this by either modifiying Makefile.master, or issuing the build
145command with a new definition for ROOT:
146
147        make install ROOT=/opt/onc
148
149You will of course need write privileges for the destination directory.
150The headers, libraries and executables will be built and installed under the
151ROOT.
152
153
154The demonstration services in the demo directory are not built by the
155top-level "make install" command.  To build these, cd to the cmd/demo
156directory and enter "make".  The four services will be built.
157RPCGEN MUST BE INSTALLED in a path that make can find.  To run the
158services, rpcbind must be running, then invoke the service
159(you probably will want to put it in the background).  rpcinfo can be
160used to check that the service succeeded in getting registered with
161rpcbind, and to ping the service (see rpcinfo's man page).  You can
162then use the corresponding client program to exercise the service.
163
164
165BUILDING ONC APPLICATIONS
166
167See the Makefiles in the demonstration services for examples of building
168ONC applications with this release.  The $(ROOT)/usr/include directory
169must be included in the compiler header file search path (-I), and the
170$(ROOT)/usr/lib directory must be included in the linker library file search
171path (-L).  Also, to run executables built dynamically, the shared library
172search path (LD_LIBRARY_PATH) must also include $(ROOT)/usr/lib.  In addition
173to linking in this release's librpc (via -lrpc), you must also link with
174Solaris's libnsl (-lnsl) and the US domestic version of libcrypt (-lcrypt).
175
176