RCMD(3) 						     Linux Programmer's Manual							   RCMD(3)

NAME

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

SYNOPSIS

       #include <netdb.h>   /* Or <unistd.h> 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 privileged
       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 nonzero, 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 provision 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 host's IP address or name, respectively, two usernames and a flag  indicating  whether
       the  local  user's  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 user's 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 geth-
       ostname(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 host's 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 overloaded to mean "All network ports in use."

CONFORMING TO

       Not in POSIX.1-2001.  Present on the BSDs, Solaris, and many other systems.  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 3.27 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)