HOSE(1) 						      General Commands Manual							   HOSE(1)

NAME

       hose - the client end of a BSD network pipe

       netpipes 4.2

SYNOPSIS

       hose  hostname  port (--in|--out|--err|--fd n|--slave|--netslave|--netslave1|--netslave2) [--verbose] [--unix] [--localport port] [--local-
       host addr] [--retry n] [--delay	n]  [--shutdown  [r|w][a]  ]  [--noreuseaddr]  [-[i][o][e][#3[,4[,5...]]][s][v][u]]  [-p  local-port]  [-h
       local-host] command args

DESCRIPTION

       hose  attempts  to  provide the functionality of pipes over the network.  It behaves as the client end of a server-client connection.  When
       used with faucet(1) it can function as a replacement for

       tar -cf - . | rsh other "cd destdir; tar -xf -"

       faucet and hose are especially useful when you don't have easy non-interactive access to the destination machine.

OPTIONS

       hose creates a BSD socket and, if the --localport option is used, binds it to the port  number  (or  service  name)  specified  immediately
       afterwards.   If  --localhost  is  also specified then its argument is a local address to bind to. ( --localhost is only useful on machines
       with multiple IP addresses.)

       hose then tries to connect to the foreign machine hostname with foreign port port.

       If successful hose redirects the socket to stdin, stdout, stderr, and/or arbitrary file descriptors according to the --in --out --err  --fd
       n  flags.  hose also automagically shuts down the unused half of the connection if only --in is specified or if only --out and/or --err are
       specified.  See the --shutdown option for more information.

       hose then exec(2)s a command with args.

       However, the --slave flag turns hose into a primitive sort of telnet.  The command is ignored.  Instead, hose goes into	a  loop  where	it
       copies  bytes from stdin to the socket, and bytes from the socket to stdout.  This is actually more useful than telnet because telnet tries
       to perform interpretation on the byte stream and generally gets in your way.  hose just passes bytes without mucking with them.

       The --netslave* options are variants on the --slave theme.  Whereas --slave will continue to forward data in one direction even	after  the
       other has encountered EOF, --netslave variants are more aggressive in closing the entire socket.  Before closing the socket, it attempts to
       flush any data already in its own buffer.  --slave performs the shutdown(2) system call when it encounters EOF on one  direction,  but  the
       --netslave variants don't because some network daemons are confused by it.

       --netslave closes down the connection when it encounters EOF in either direction.

       --netslave1  closes  down the connection when it encounters EOF while reading stdin.  Any data unread on the socket will be ignored.  If it
       merely encounters EOF on the socket, it will continue to read from stdin.

       --netslave2 closes down the connection when it encounters EOF while reading from the socket.  Any data unread on stdin will be ignored.	If
       it merely encounters EOF on stdin, it will continue to read from the socket.  This mode can be useful with some web servers.

       The  --verbose flag specifies that hose should print information about the host it connects to.	This information includes the numeric host
       address, host names, and foreign port numbers.

       The --unix flag specifies that the port is not an internet port number or service name, but instead it is a  filename  for  a  UNIX  domain
       socket.	This option may be simulated by using -unix- as the host name to connect to, or by renaming the hose program to uhose.

       --retry n allows the user to specify that hose should retry the connect(2) call for n times (or forever if n is negative).  --delay n spec-
       ifies how many seconds to delay between tries.

       --shutdown is used to control two behaviors.  The first set is controlled by the `r' and `w' flags.  If the `r' is present, then hose  will
       close  half  the  connection  to make it a read-only socket.  If the child tries to write, it will fail.  If the remote connection tries to
       read, it will percieve the socket as closed.  If instead the `w' is present, then hose will close the other half of the connection to  make
       it  a  write-only  socket.  If the child tries to read, it will percieve the socket as closed.  If the remote connection tries to write, it
       will fail.  The default behavior is to leave both halves open, however the shutdown of half of the connection is automagically done by cer-
       tain combinations of the --in, --out, and --err flags.  To suppress their automagic behavior you can use (respectively) --fd 0, --fd 1, and
       --fd 2.

       The other behavior is controlled by the `a' flag.  If the `a' flag is present then hose will fork(2) before execcing the command  and  when
       the  child  exits  it  will perform a shutdown(2) with how=2.  This closes both halves of the connection.  This option is not necessary for
       most applications since the closing of the file descriptors is detected by the remote process, but some less sophisticated network  devices
       (such  as  printers)  require  a shutdown(2) for proper operation.  To make things perfectly clear, the list of acceptable arguments to the
       --shutdown option are `r', `w', `ra', `wa', `a'.

       By default, hose performs a

       which prevents the ``Address in use'' problem that ``plagued'' netpipes versions 4.0 and earlier.  --noreuseaddr tells hose  to	skip  that
       system call, and revert to pre-4.1 behavior.  Without this call, the port is not always available for immediate reuse after the hose exits.

SHORT FLAGS

       To reduce the typing requirements for arguments (and to pay homage to the age-old tradition of UNIX cryptotaxonomy) I have added some short
       forms of the flags.  Here is a correspondence chart:

       +------+--------------+
       |Short | Long	     |
       |  i   | in	     |
       |  o   | out	     |
       |  e   | err	     |
       | #n   | fdn	     |
       |  s   | slave	     |
       |  v   | verbose      |
       |  q   | quiet	     |
       |  u   | unix	     |
       |  p   | localport    |
       |  h   | localhost    |
       +------+--------------+
       See faucet(1) for a more detailed discussion of short flags.  Their behavior should be unsurprising.  The flags that require separate argu-
       ments follow in the tradition of tar(1).

EXAMPLES

       This will connect to port 3000 on the machine reef and connect the socket to the stdin of a tar command.

       example$ hose reef 3000 --in tar -xf - .

       The command actually exec(2)ed by the hose program is

       tar -xf - .

       The --in option means that the input of the child process will have been redirected into the socket connected to reef.

       This connects to a UNIX domain socket in the current directory

       example$ hose --unix- u-socket --in sh -c 
	     "unfunky.perl.script | dd of=sample.pgm"

       The socket provides input to the sh command.

SEE ALSO

       netpipes (1), faucet (1), sockdown (1), getpeername (1), socket (2), bind (2), connect (2), shutdown (2), services (5), gethostbyaddr (3)

NOTES

       Doubtless  there are bugs in this program, especially in the unix domain socket portions.  I welcome problem reports and would like to make
       these programs as "clean" (no leftover files, sockets) as possible.

       4.0 made the full-word arguments use -- like many GNU programs.	They are still available with a single - for backward-compatibility.

       3.1 added the single-character flags.

       Release 2.3 added support for multi-homed hosts: hosts with multiple internet numbers (such as gateways).  Before this faucet assumed  that
       the  first internet number that gethostbyname returned was the only one.  --foreignport authentication was weakened by this inadequacy so I
       beefed up the algorithms.  --foreignport will accept a connection from any of the internet numbers associated with the host name.

CREDITS

       Thanks to Steve Clift <clift@ml.csiro.au> for SGI (SysV) patches.

       Many people complained about the old way of specifying the command.  Thanks to whoever gave me the alternative which  is  now  implemented.
       It is much better.

       Thanks  to  Sten  Drescher <smd@hrt213.brooks.af.mil> for the --retry and --delay patches and giving me the idea for the --shutdown option.
       Evidently some printer doesn't appreciate the socket being close(2)d.

       Randy Fischer <fischer@ucet.ufl.edu> finally prodded me into fixing the old lame non-handling of multi-homed host.

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (C) 1992-98 Robert Forsman

       This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as  published	by
       the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

       This  program  is  distributed  in  the	hope  that  it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MER-
       CHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License for more details.

       You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free  Software  Foundation,
       Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.

AUTHOR

       Robert Forsman
	thoth@purplefrog.com
	Purple Frog Software
	http://web.purplefrog.com/~thoth/

								 October 28, 1998							   HOSE(1)