xref: /freebsd/usr.bin/rpcgen/rpcgen.1 (revision 7899f917b1c0ea178f1d2be0cfb452086d079d23)
1.\" Copyright 1985-1993 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
2.\"
3.Dd September 2, 2005
4.Dt RPCGEN 1
5.Os
6.Sh NAME
7.Nm rpcgen
8.Nd an RPC protocol compiler
9.Sh SYNOPSIS
10.Nm
11.Ar infile
12.Nm
13.Op Fl a
14.Op Fl b
15.Op Fl C
16.Oo
17.Fl D Ns Ar name Ns Op Ar =value
18.Oc
19.Op Fl i Ar size
20.Op Fl I Fl P Op Fl K Ar seconds
21.Op Fl L
22.Op Fl M
23.Op Fl N
24.Op Fl T
25.Op Fl Y Ar pathname
26.Ar infile
27.Nm
28.Oo
29.Fl c |
30.Fl h |
31.Fl l |
32.Fl m |
33.Fl t |
34.Fl \&Sc |
35.Fl \&Ss |
36.Fl \&Sm
37.Oc
38.Op Fl o Ar outfile
39.Op Ar infile
40.Nm
41.Op Fl s Ar nettype
42.Op Fl o Ar outfile
43.Op Ar infile
44.Nm
45.Op Fl n Ar netid
46.Op Fl o Ar outfile
47.Op Ar infile
48.\" .SH AVAILABILITY
49.\" .LP
50.\" SUNWcsu
51.Sh DESCRIPTION
52The
53.Nm
54utility is a tool that generates C code to implement an
55.Tn RPC
56protocol.
57The input to
58.Nm
59is a language similar to C known as
60.Tn RPC
61Language (Remote Procedure Call Language).
62.Pp
63The
64.Nm
65utility is normally used as in the first synopsis where
66it takes an input file and generates three output files.
67If the
68.Ar infile
69is named
70.Pa proto.x ,
71then
72.Nm
73generates a header in
74.Pa proto.h ,
75XDR routines in
76.Pa proto_xdr.c ,
77server-side stubs in
78.Pa proto_svc.c ,
79and client-side stubs in
80.Pa proto_clnt.c .
81With the
82.Fl T
83option,
84it also generates the
85.Tn RPC
86dispatch table in
87.Pa proto_tbl.i .
88.Pp
89The
90.Nm
91utility can also generate sample client and server files
92that can be customized to suit a particular application.
93The
94.Fl \&Sc ,
95.Fl \&Ss
96and
97.Fl \&Sm
98options generate sample client, server and makefile, respectively.
99The
100.Fl a
101option generates all files, including sample files.
102If the
103.Ar infile
104is
105.Pa proto.x ,
106then the client side sample file is written to
107.Pa proto_client.c ,
108the server side sample file to
109.Pa proto_server.c
110and the sample makefile to
111.Pa makefile.proto .
112.Pp
113If option
114.Fl I
115is set,
116the server created can be started both by the port monitors
117(for example,
118.Xr inetd 8 )
119or by itself.
120When it is started by a port monitor,
121it creates servers only for the transport for which
122the file descriptor
123.Em 0
124was passed.
125The name of the transport may be specified
126by setting up the environment variable
127.Ev NLSPROVIDER .
128When the server generated by
129.Nm
130is executed,
131it creates server handles for all the transports
132specified in
133.Ev NETPATH
134environment variable,
135or if it is unset,
136it creates server handles for all the visible transports from
137.Pa /etc/netconfig
138file.
139Note:
140the transports are chosen at run time and not at compile time.
141When the server is self-started,
142it backgrounds itself by default.
143A special define symbol
144.Em RPC_SVC_FG
145can be used to run the server process in foreground.
146.Pp
147The second synopsis provides special features which allow
148for the creation of more sophisticated
149.Tn RPC
150servers.
151These features include support for user provided
152.Em #defines
153and
154.Tn RPC
155dispatch tables.
156The entries in the
157.Tn RPC
158dispatch table contain:
159.Bl -bullet -offset indent -compact
160.It
161pointers to the service routine corresponding to that procedure,
162.It
163a pointer to the input and output arguments,
164.It
165the size of these routines.
166.El
167A server can use the dispatch table to check authorization
168and then to execute the service routine;
169a client library may use it to deal with the details of storage
170management and XDR data conversion.
171.Pp
172The other three synopses shown above are used when
173one does not want to generate all the output files,
174but only a particular one.
175See the
176.Sx EXAMPLES
177section below for examples of
178.Nm
179usage.
180When
181.Nm
182is executed with the
183.Fl s
184option,
185it creates servers for that particular class of transports.
186When
187executed with the
188.Fl n
189option,
190it creates a server for the transport specified by
191.Ar netid .
192If
193.Ar infile
194is not specified,
195.Nm
196accepts the standard input.
197.Pp
198The C preprocessor,
199.Em cc -E
200is run on the input file before it is actually interpreted by
201.Nm .
202For each type of output file,
203.Nm
204defines a special preprocessor symbol for use by the
205.Nm
206programmer:
207.Bl -tag -width indent
208.It RPC_HDR
209defined when compiling into headers
210.It RPC_XDR
211defined when compiling into XDR routines
212.It RPC_SVC
213defined when compiling into server-side stubs
214.It RPC_CLNT
215defined when compiling into client-side stubs
216.It RPC_TBL
217defined when compiling into RPC dispatch tables
218.El
219.Pp
220Any line beginning with
221.Dq %
222is passed directly into the output file,
223uninterpreted by
224.Nm .
225To specify the path name of the C preprocessor use
226.Fl Y
227flag.
228.Pp
229For every data type referred to in
230.Ar infile ,
231.Nm
232assumes that there exists a
233routine with the string
234.Em xdr_
235prepended to the name of the data type.
236If this routine does not exist in the
237.Tn RPC/XDR
238library, it must be provided.
239Providing an undefined data type
240allows customization of
241.Xr xdr 3
242routines.
243.Sh OPTIONS
244The following options are available:
245.Bl -tag -width indent
246.It Fl a
247Generate all files, including sample files.
248.It Fl b
249Backward compatibility mode.
250Generate transport specific
251.Tn RPC
252code for older versions
253of the operating system.
254.It Fl c
255Compile into
256.Tn XDR
257routines.
258.It Fl C
259Generate ANSI C code.
260This is always done, the flag is only provided for backwards compatibility.
261.It Fl D Ns Ar name
262.It Fl D Ns Ar name=value
263.\".It Fl D Ns Ar name Ns Op Ar =value
264Define a symbol
265.Ar name .
266Equivalent to the
267.Em #define
268directive in the source.
269If no
270.Ar value
271is given,
272.Ar value
273is defined as
274.Em 1 .
275This option may be specified more than once.
276.It Fl h
277Compile into C data-definitions (a header).
278.Fl T
279option can be used in conjunction to produce a
280header which supports
281.Tn RPC
282dispatch tables.
283.It Fl i Ar size
284Size at which to start generating inline code.
285This option is useful for optimization.
286The default size is 5.
287.Pp
288Note: in order to provide backwards compatibility with the older
289.Nm
290on the
291.Fx
292platform, the default is actually 0 (which means
293that inline code generation is disabled by default).
294You must specify
295a non-zero value explicitly to override this default.
296.It Fl I
297Compile support for
298.Xr inetd 8
299in the server side stubs.
300Such servers can be self-started or can be started by
301.Xr inetd 8 .
302When the server is self-started, it backgrounds itself by default.
303A special define symbol
304.Em RPC_SVC_FG
305can be used to run the
306server process in foreground, or the user may simply compile without
307the
308.Fl I
309option.
310.Pp
311If there are no pending client requests, the
312.Xr inetd 8
313servers exit after 120 seconds (default).
314The default can be changed with the
315.Fl K
316option.
317All the error messages for
318.Xr inetd 8
319servers
320are always logged with
321.Xr syslog 3 .
322.Pp
323Note:
324Contrary to some systems, in
325.Fx
326this option is needed to generate
327servers that can be invoked through portmonitors and
328.Xr inetd 8 .
329.It Fl K Ar seconds
330By default, services created using
331.Nm
332and invoked through
333port monitors wait 120 seconds
334after servicing a request before exiting.
335That interval can be changed using the
336.Fl K
337flag.
338To create a server that exits immediately upon servicing a request,
339use
340.Fl K Ar 0 .
341To create a server that never exits, the appropriate argument is
342.Fl K Ar -1 .
343.Pp
344When monitoring for a server,
345some portmonitors
346.Em always
347spawn a new process in response to a service request.
348If it is known that a server will be used with such a monitor, the
349server should exit immediately on completion.
350For such servers,
351.Nm
352should be used with
353.Fl K Ar 0 .
354.It Fl l
355Compile into client-side stubs.
356.It Fl L
357When the servers are started in foreground, use
358.Xr syslog 3
359to log the server errors instead of printing them on the standard
360error.
361.It Fl m
362Compile into server-side stubs,
363but do not generate a
364.Qq main
365routine.
366This option is useful for doing callback-routines
367and for users who need to write their own
368.Qq main
369routine to do initialization.
370.It Fl M
371Generate multithread-safe stubs for passing arguments and results between
372rpcgen generated code and user written code.
373This option is useful
374for users who want to use threads in their code.
375However, the
376.Xr rpc_svc_calls 3
377functions are not yet MT-safe, which means that rpcgen generated server-side
378code will not be MT-safe.
379.It Fl N
380Allow procedures to have multiple arguments.
381It also uses the style of parameter passing that closely resembles C.
382So, when passing an argument to a remote procedure, you do not have to
383pass a pointer to the argument, but can pass the argument itself.
384This behavior is different from the old style of
385.Nm
386generated code.
387To maintain backward compatibility,
388this option is not the default.
389.It Fl n Ar netid
390Compile into server-side stubs for the transport
391specified by
392.Ar netid .
393There should be an entry for
394.Ar netid
395in the
396netconfig database.
397This option may be specified more than once,
398so as to compile a server that serves multiple transports.
399.It Fl o Ar outfile
400Specify the name of the output file.
401If none is specified,
402standard output is used
403.Fl ( c ,
404.Fl h ,
405.Fl l ,
406.Fl m ,
407.Fl n ,
408.Fl s ,
409.Fl \&Sc ,
410.Fl \&Sm ,
411.Fl \&Ss ,
412and
413.Fl t
414modes only).
415.It Fl P
416Compile support for
417port monitors
418in the server side stubs.
419.Pp
420Note:
421Contrary to some systems, in
422.Fx
423this option is needed to generate
424servers that can be monitored.
425.Pp
426If the
427.Fl I
428option has been specified,
429.Fl P
430is turned off automatically.
431.It Fl s Ar nettype
432Compile into server-side stubs for all the
433transports belonging to the class
434.Ar nettype .
435The supported classes are
436.Em netpath ,
437.Em visible ,
438.Em circuit_n ,
439.Em circuit_v ,
440.Em datagram_n ,
441.Em datagram_v ,
442.Em tcp ,
443and
444.Em udp
445(see
446.Xr rpc 3
447for the meanings associated with these classes).
448This option may be specified more than once.
449Note:
450the transports are chosen at run time and not at compile time.
451.It Fl \&Sc
452Generate sample client code that uses remote procedure calls.
453.It Fl \&Sm
454Generate a sample
455.Pa Makefile
456which can be used for compiling the application.
457.It Fl \&Ss
458Generate sample server code that uses remote procedure calls.
459.It Fl t
460Compile into
461.Tn RPC
462dispatch table.
463.It Fl T
464Generate the code to support
465.Tn RPC
466dispatch tables.
467.Pp
468The options
469.Fl c ,
470.Fl h ,
471.Fl l ,
472.Fl m ,
473.Fl s ,
474.Fl \&Sc ,
475.Fl \&Sm ,
476.Fl \&Ss ,
477and
478.Fl t
479are used exclusively to generate a particular type of file,
480while the options
481.Fl D
482and
483.Fl T
484are global and can be used with the other options.
485.It Fl Y Ar pathname
486Give the name of the directory where
487.Nm
488will start looking for the C-preprocessor.
489.El
490.Sh ENVIRONMENT
491If the
492.Ev RPCGEN_CPP
493environment variable is set, its value is used as the command line of the
494C preprocessor to be run on the input file.
495.Sh EXAMPLES
496The following example:
497.Dl example% rpcgen -T prot.x
498.Pp
499generates all the five files:
500.Pa prot.h ,
501.Pa prot_clnt.c ,
502.Pa prot_svc.c ,
503.Pa prot_xdr.c
504and
505.Pa prot_tbl.i .
506.Pp
507The following example sends the C data-definitions (header)
508to the standard output.
509.Dl example% rpcgen -h prot.x
510.Pp
511To send the test version of the
512.Fl D Ns Ar TEST ,
513server side stubs for
514all the transport belonging to the class
515.Ar datagram_n
516to standard output, use:
517.Dl example% rpcgen -s datagram_n -DTEST prot.x
518.Pp
519To create the server side stubs for the transport indicated
520by
521.Ar netid
522tcp,
523use:
524.Dl example% rpcgen -n tcp -o prot_svc.c prot.x
525.Sh SEE ALSO
526.Xr cc 1 ,
527.Xr rpc 3 ,
528.Xr rpc_svc_calls 3 ,
529.Xr syslog 3 ,
530.Xr xdr 3 ,
531.Xr inetd 8
532.Rs
533.%T The rpcgen chapter in the NETP manual
534.Re
535