RCMD(3) 		   Linux Programmers Manual		      RCMD(3)



NAME
       rcmd, rresvport, iruserok, ruserok - routines for returning a stream to
       a remote command

SYNOPSIS
       #include    /* Or  on some systems */

       int rcmd(char **ahost, int inport, const char *locuser,
		const char *remuser, const char *cmd, int *fd2p);

       int rresvport(int *port);

       int iruserok(uint32_t raddr, int superuser,
		    const char *ruser, const char *luser);

       int ruserok(const char *rhost, int superuser,
		   const char *ruser, const char *luser);

   Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):

       rcmd(), rresvport(), ruserok(): _BSD_SOURCE

DESCRIPTION
       The rcmd() function is used by the superuser to execute a command on  a
       remote  machine	using  an authentication scheme based on reserved port
       numbers.  The rresvport() function returns a  descriptor  to  a	socket
       with  an  address  in  the  privileged  port space.  The iruserok() and
       ruserok()  functions  are  used	by  servers  to  authenticate  clients
       requesting  service with rcmd().  All four functions are present in the
       same file and are used by the rshd(8) server (among others).

       The rcmd() function looks up the host  *ahost  using  gethostbyname(3),
       returning  -1  if  the host does not exist.  Otherwise *ahost is set to
       the standard name of the host and a  connection	is  established  to  a
       server residing at the well-known Internet port inport.

       If  the	connection  succeeds,  a socket in the Internet domain of type
       SOCK_STREAM is returned to the caller, and given to the remote  command
       as stdin and stdout.  If fd2p is non-zero, then an auxiliary channel to
       a control process will be set up, and  a  descriptor  for  it  will  be
       placed  in  *fd2p.   The  control process will return diagnostic output
       from the command (unit 2) on this channel, and will also  accept  bytes
       on  this  channel  as being Unix signal numbers, to be forwarded to the
       process group of the command.  If fd2p is 0, then the stderr (unit 2 of
       the  remote  command) will be made the same as the stdout and no provi
       sion is made for sending  arbitrary  signals  to  the  remote  process,
       although  you  may  be  able  to get its attention by using out-of-band
       data.

       The protocol is described in detail in rshd(8).

       The rresvport() function is used to obtain a socket with  a  privileged
       address	bound  to  it.	 This socket is suitable for use by rcmd() and
       several other functions.  Privileged Internet ports are	those  in  the
       range  0  to 1023.  Only the superuser is allowed to bind an address of
       this sort to a socket.

       The iruserok() and ruserok() functions take a remote hosts IP  address
       or  name, respectively, two usernames and a flag indicating whether the
       local users name is that of the superuser.  Then, if the user  is  not
       the  superuser, it checks the /etc/hosts.equiv file.  If that lookup is
       not done, or is unsuccessful, the .rhosts  in  the  local  users  home
       directory is checked to see if the request for service is allowed.

       If  this file does not exist, is not a regular file, is owned by anyone
       other than the user or the superuser, or is writable  by  anyone  other
       than the owner, the check automatically fails.  Zero is returned if the
       machine name is listed in the hosts.equiv file, or the host and	remote
       username  are  found  in  the  .rhosts  file;  otherwise iruserok() and
       ruserok() return -1.  If the local domain (as  obtained	from  gethost
       name(2))  is  the same as the remote domain, only the machine name need
       be specified.

       If the IP address of the remote host is	known,	iruserok()  should  be
       used  in  preference  to ruserok(), as it does not require trusting the
       DNS server for the remote hosts domain.

RETURN VALUE
       The rcmd() function returns a valid socket descriptor on  success.   It
       returns	-1  on	error  and prints a diagnostic message on the standard
       error.

       The rresvport() function returns a valid, bound	socket	descriptor  on
       success.   It  returns  -1  on  error  with  the global value errno set
       according to the reason for failure.  The error code  EAGAIN  is  over
       loaded to mean "All network ports in use."

CONFORMING TO
       Not in POSIX.1-2001.  Present on the BSDs, Solaris, and many other sys
       tems.  These functions appeared in 4.2BSD.

BUGS
       iruserok() is not declared in glibc headers.

SEE ALSO
       rlogin(1), rsh(1), intro(2), rexec(3), rexecd(8), rlogind(8), rshd(8)

COLOPHON
       This page is part of release 3.05 of the Linux  man-pages  project.   A
       description  of	the project, and information about reporting bugs, can
       be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.



Linux				  2007-12-28			       RCMD(3)