rpcgen(NC) 6 January 1993 rpcgen(NC) Name rpcgen - an RPC protocol compiler Syntax rpcgen infile rpcgen -h [-o outfile] [inputfile] rpcgen -c [-o outfile] [infile] rpcgen -s transport [-o outfile] [infile] rpcgen -l [-o outfile] [infile] rpcgen -m [-o outfile] [infile] Description rpcgen is a tool that generates C code to implement an RPC protocol. The input to rpcgen is a language known as RPC Language (Remote Procedure Call Language). Information about the syntax of RPC Language is avail- able in the `rpcgen' Programming Guide. rpcgen is normally used as in the first syntax 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 syntax examples shown above are used when one does not want to generate all the output files, but only a particular one. Their usage is described below. The C-preprocessor, cpp(CP), 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 some preprocessing of its own. Any line begin- ning 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 undefined data type, rpcgen will assume that there exists a routine with the name xdr prepended to the name of the unde- fined type. Options -c compile into XDR routines -h compile into C data-definitions (a header file) -l compile into client-side stubs -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 trans- ports. -m compile into server-side stubs, but do not produce a main() routine. This option is useful if you want to supply your own main(). -o outfile specify the name of the output file. If none is specified, standard output is used (-c, -h, -l, and -s modes only). Bugs Nesting is not supported. As a work-around, structures can be declared at the top-level and their names can be used within 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.