| NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | VERSIONS | CONFORMING TO | BUGS | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON | The Linux Programming Interface |
REXEC(3) Linux Programmer's Manual REXEC(3)
rexec, rexec_af - return stream to a remote command
#define _BSD_SOURCE /* See feature_test_macros(7) */
#include <netdb.h>
int rexec(char **ahost, int inport, char *user,
char *passwd, char *cmd, int *fd2p);
int rexec_af(char **ahost, int inport, char *user,
char *passwd, char *cmd, int *fd2p,
sa_family_t af);
This interface is obsoleted by rcmd(3).
The rexec() 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. If a username and password are both
specified, then these are used to authenticate to the foreign host;
otherwise the environment and then the user's .netrc file in his home
directory are searched for appropriate information. If all this
fails, the user is prompted for the information.
The port inport specifies which well-known DARPA Internet port to use
for the connection; the call getservbyname("exec", "tcp") (see
getservent(3)) will return a pointer to a structure that contains the
necessary port. The protocol for connection is described in detail
in rexecd(8).
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 setup, 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. The diagnostic
information returned does not include remote authorization failure,
as the secondary connection is set up after authorization has been
verified. 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 rexec() function works over IPv4 (AF_INET). By contrast, the
rexec_af() function provides an extra argument, af, that allows the
caller to select the protocol. This argument can be specified as
AF_INET, AF_INET6, or AF_UNSPEC (to allow the implementation to
select the protocol).
The rexec_af() function was added to glibc in version 2.2.
These functions are not in POSIX.1-2001. The rexec() function first
appeared in 4.2BSD, and is present on the BSDs, Solaris, and many
other systems. The rexec_af() function is more recent, and less
widespread.
The rexec() function sends the unencrypted password across the
network.
The underlying service is considered a big security hole and
therefore not enabled on many sites; see rexecd(8) for explanations.
rcmd(3), rexecd(8)
This page is part of release 3.51 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 2012-04-23 REXEC(3)
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