RPCGEN(1)

NAME
rpcgen - RPC protocol compiler

SYNOPSIS
rpcgen infile
rpcgen -c | -h | -l | -m [-o outfile] [infile]
rpcgen -s transport [-o outfile] [infile]

DESCRIPTION
rpcgen is a tool that generates C code to implement an RPC protocol. The input to rpcgen is a language similar to C known as RPC Language (Remote Procedure Call Language). Information about the syntax of RPC Language is available in the rpcgen Programming Guide.

rpcgen is normally used as in the first synopsis where it takes an input file and generates four output files. If the infile is named proto.x, then rpcgen will generate a header file in proto.h, XDR routines in proto_xdr.c, server-side stubs in proto_svc.c, and client-side stubs in proto_clnt.c.

The other synopses shown above are used when one does not want to generate all the output files, but only a particular one.

The C-preprocessor, cpp(1), is run on all input files before they are actually interpreted by rpcgen, so all the cpp directives are legal within an rpcgen input file. For each type of output file, rpcgen defines a special cpp symbol for use by the rpcgen programmer:

RPC_HDR
    defined when compiling into header files
RPC_XDR
    defined when compiling into XDR routines
RPC_SVC
    defined when compiling into server-side stubs
RPC_CLNT
    defined when compiling into client-side stubs

In addition, rpcgen does a little preprocessing of its own. Any line beginning with ‘%’ is passed directly into the output file, uninterpreted by rpcgen.

You can customize some of your XDR routines by leaving those data types undefined. For every data type that is undefined, rpcgen will assume that there exists a routine with the name xdr_ prepended to the name of the undefined type.

OPTIONS

-c  Compile into XDR routines.

-h  Compile into C data-definitions (a header file).

-l  Compile into client-side stubs.

-m  Compile into server-side stubs, but do not generate a main() routine. This option is useful for doing callback-routines and for people who need to write their own main() routine to do initialization.

-o outfile
    Specify the name of the output file. If none is specified, standard output is used ( -c, -h, -l and -s modes only).

-s transport
    Compile into server-side stubs, using the the given transport. The supported transports are udp and tcp. This option may be invoked more than once so as to compile a server that serves multiple transports.

SEE ALSO
cpp(1) rpcgen Programming Guide.

BUGS
Nesting is not supported. As a work-around, structures can be declared at top-level, and their name used inside other structures in order to achieve the same effect.

Name clashes can occur when using program definitions, since the apparent scoping does not really apply. Most of these can be avoided by giving unique names for programs, versions, procedures and types.