NAME

       ic_c_protocol - IC C Protocol Functions

DESCRIPTION

       This manual page lists some of the functions of the IC C runtime library that are used internally for the
       IC protocol.

       The listed functions are used internally by generated C client and server code. They are documented  here
       for the advanced user that want to replace the default protocol (Erlang distribution + gen_server) by his
       own protocol, For each set of client or sever functions below with prefix oe, the user has  to  implement
       his  own  set  of  functions,  the  names of which are obtained by replacing the oe prefix by Prefix. The
       Prefix has to be set with the option {user_protocol, Prefix} at compile time.

       The following terminology is used (reflected in names of functions): a notification  is  a  message  send
       from client to server, without any reply back (i.e. a oneway operation); a request is a message sent from
       client to server, and where a reply message is sent back from the server to the client.

       In order to understand how the functions work and what they do the user must study  their  implementation
       in  the IC C library (source file is ic.c), and also consider how they are used in the C code of ordinary
       generated client stubs or server skeletons.

CLIENT PROTOCOL FUNCTIONS

       The following functions are used internally by generated C client code.

EXPORTS

       int oe_prepare_notification_encoding(CORBA_Environment *env)

              The result of this function is the beginning of a binary  of  in  external  format  of  the  tuple
              {'$gen_cast', X} where X is not yet filled in.

              In generated client code this function is the first to be called in the encoding function for each
              oneway operation.

       int oe_send_notification(CORBA_Environment *env)
       int oe_send_notification_tmo(CORBA_Environment *env,  unsigned int send_ms)

              Sends a client notification to  a  server  according  to  the  Erlang  distribution  +  gen_server
              protocol.

              The send_ms parameter specified a timeout in milliseconds.

       int oe_prepare_request_encoding(CORBA_Environment *env)

              The  result  of  this  function  is  the beginning of a binary in the external format of the tuple
              {'$gen_call', {Pid, Ref}, X} where X is not yet filled in.

              In generated client code this function is the first to be called in the encoding function for each
              twoway operation.

       int oe_send_request_and_receive_reply(CORBA_Environment *env)
       int  oe_send_request_and_receive_reply_tmo(CORBA_Environment  *env,  unsigned  int  send_ms, unsigned int
       recv_ms)

              Sends a client request and receives the reply according to the Erlang  distribution  +  gen_server
              protocol.  This  function  calls  the  oe_prepare_reply_decoding  function  in order to obtain the
              gen_server reply.

              send_ms and recv_ms specify timeouts for send and receive, respectively, in milliseconds.

       int oe_prepare_reply_decoding(CORBA_Environment *env)

              Decodes the binary version of the tuple {Ref, X}, where X is to be decoded later by  the  specific
              client decoding function.

SERVER PROTOCOL FUNCTIONS

       The following functions are used internally by generated C server code.

EXPORTS

       int oe_prepare_request_decoding(CORBA_Environment *env)

              Decodes the binary version of the tuple {'$gen_cast', Op} (Op an atom), or the tuple {'$gen_cast',
              {Op, X}}, where Op is the operation name, and where X is to  be  decoded  later  by  the  specific
              operation decoding function; or

              decodes  the  binary version of the tuple {'$gen_call', {Pid, Ref}, Op} (Op an atom), or the tuple
              {'$gen_call', {Pid, Ref}, {Op, X}}, where Op> is the operation name, and X is to be  decode  later
              by the specific operation decoding function.

       int oe_prepare_reply_encoding(CORBA_Environment *env)

              Encodes  the  beginning of the binary version of the tuple {{Ref,X}, where X is to be filled in by
              the specific server encoding function.

SEE ALSO

       ic(3erl), ic_clib(3erl), IC Protocol