xref: /freebsd/lib/libcompat/4.3/rexec.3 (revision b9b9e020c9ccb7816bacb9b236f314e54a6b4df7)
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32.\"     @(#)rexec.3	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
33.\" $FreeBSD$
34.\"
35.Dd June 4, 1993
36.Dt REXEC 3
37.Os BSD 4.2
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm rexec
40.Nd return stream to a remote command
41.Sh LIBRARY
42.Lb libcompat
43.Sh SYNOPSIS
44.Ft int
45.Fn rexec "char **ahost" "int inport" "char *user" "char *passwd" "char *cmd" "int *fd2p"
46.Sh DESCRIPTION
47.Bf -symbolic
48This interface is obsoleted by
49.Xr rcmd 3 .
50.Ef
51.Pp
52The
53.Fn rexec
54function
55looks up the host
56.Fa *ahost
57using
58.Xr gethostbyname 3 ,
59returning \-1 if the host does not exist.
60Otherwise
61.Fa *ahost
62is set to the standard name of the host.
63If a username and password are both specified, then these
64are used to authenticate to the foreign host; otherwise
65the environment and then the user's
66.Pa .netrc
67file in his
68home directory are searched for appropriate information.
69If all this fails, the user is prompted for the information.
70.Pp
71The port
72.Fa inport
73specifies which well-known
74.Tn DARPA
75Internet port to use for
76the connection; the call
77.Ql getservbyname(\\*qexec\\*q, \\*qtcp\\*q)
78(see
79.Xr getservent 3 )
80will return a pointer to a structure, which contains the
81necessary port.
82The protocol for connection is described in detail in
83.Xr rexecd 8 .
84.Pp
85If the connection succeeds,
86a socket in the Internet domain of type
87.Dv SOCK_STREAM
88is returned to
89the caller, and given to the remote command as
90.Em stdin
91and
92.Em stdout .
93If
94.Fa fd2p
95is non-zero, then an auxiliary channel to a control
96process will be setup, and a descriptor for it will be placed
97in
98.Fa *fd2p .
99The control process will return diagnostic
100output from the command (unit 2) on this channel, and will also
101accept bytes on this channel as being
102.Tn UNIX
103signal numbers, to be
104forwarded to the process group of the command.  The diagnostic
105information returned does not include remote authorization failure,
106as the secondary connection is set up after authorization has been
107verified.
108If
109.Fa fd2p
110is 0, then the
111.Em stderr
112(unit 2 of the remote
113command) will be made the same as the
114.Em stdout
115and no
116provision is made for sending arbitrary signals to the remote process,
117although you may be able to get its attention by using out-of-band data.
118.Sh SEE ALSO
119.Xr rcmd 3 ,
120.Xr rexecd 8
121.Sh HISTORY
122The
123.Fn rexec
124function appeared in
125.Bx 4.2 .
126.Sh BUGS
127The
128.Fn rexec
129function sends the unencrypted password across the network.
130.Pp
131The underlying service is considered a big security hole and therefore
132not enabled on many sites, see
133.Xr rexecd 8
134for explanations.
135