NAME

       rstartd - a sample implementation of a Remote Start rsh helper

SYNOPSIS

       rstartd

       rstartd.real [-c configfilename]

DESCRIPTION

       Rstartd  is  an implementation of a Remote Start "helper" as defined in "A Flexible Remote
       Execution Protocol Based on rsh".

       This document describes the peculiarities of rstartd and how it is configured.

OPTIONS

       -c configfilename
               This option specifies the "global" configuration file that  rstartd  is  to  read.
               Normally,  rstartd is a shell script that invokes rstartd.real with the -c switch,
               allowing local configuration of  the  location  of  the  configuration  file.   If
               rstartd.real is started without the -c option, it reads /etc/X11/rstart/config.

INSTALLATION

       It  is  critical to successful interoperation of the Remote Start protocol that rstartd be
       installed in a directory which is in the  "default"  search  path,  so  that  default  rsh
       requests and the ilk will be able to find it.

CONFIGURATION AND OPERATION

       Rstartd  is  by design highly configurable.  One would like things like configuration file
       locations to be fixed, so that users and administrators can find them  without  searching,
       but reality is that no two vendors will agree on where things should go, and nobody thinks
       the original location is "right".  Thus, rstartd allows one to relocate all of  its  files
       and directories.

       Rstartd  has a hierarchy of configuration files which are executed in order when a request
       is made.  They are:
       global config
       per-user ("local") config
       global per-context config
       per-user ("local") per-context config
       config from request
       As you might guess from the presence of "config from request", all of the config files are
       in  the  format  of an rstart request.  Rstartd defines a few additional keywords with the
       INTERNAL- prefix for specifying its configuration.

       Rstartd starts by reading and executing the global config file.  This file  will  normally
       specify the locations of the other configuration files and any systemwide defaults.

       Rstartd will then read the user's local config file, default name $HOME/.rstart.

       Rstartd will then start interpreting the request.

       Presumably one of the first lines in the request will be a CONTEXT line.  The context name
       is converted to lower case.

       Rstartd  will  read  the   global   config   file   for   that   context,   default   name
       /usr/lib/X11/rstart/contexts/<name>, if any.

       It   will   then   read   the   user's   config   file  for  that  context,  default  name
       $HOME/.rstart.contexts/<name>, if any.

       (If neither of these exists, rstartd aborts with a Failure message.)

       Rstartd will finish interpreting the request, and execute the program specified.

       This allows the system administrator and the user a  large  degree  of  control  over  the
       operation  of  rstartd.   The  administrator has final say, because the global config file
       doesn't need to specify a per-user config  file.   If  it  does,  however,  the  user  can
       override anything from the global file, and can even completely replace the global context
       config files.

       The config files have a somewhat more flexible format than requests do; they  are  allowed
       to  contain blank lines and lines beginning with "#" are comments and ignored.  (#s in the
       middle of lines are data, not comment markers.)

       Any commands run are provided a few useful pieces of information in environment variables.
       The exact names are configurable, but the supplied defaults are:

       $RSTART_CONTEXT
       $RSTART_GLOBAL_CONTEXTS   the global contexts directory
       $RSTART_LOCAL_CONTEXTS    the local contexts directory
       $RSTART_GLOBAL_COMMANDS   the global generic commands directory
       $RSTART_LOCAL_COMMANDS    the local generic commands directory

       $RSTART_{GLOBAL,LOCAL}_CONTEXTS  should  contain one special file, @List, which contains a
       list of the contexts in that directory in the  format  specified  for  ListContexts.   The
       supplied version of ListContexts will cat both the global and local copies of @List.

       Generic commands are searched for in several places: (defaults)
       per-user per-context directory ($HOME/.rstart.commands/<context>)
       global per-context directory (/usr/lib/X11/rstart/commands/<context>)
       per-user all-contexts directory ($HOME/.rstart.commands)
       global all-contexts directory (/usr/lib/X11/rstart/commands)
       (Yes,  this  means  you can't have an all-contexts generic command with the same name as a
       context.  It didn't seem like a big deal.)

       Each of these directories should have a  file  called  @List  that  gives  the  names  and
       descriptions   of   the   commands   in   that  directory  in  the  format  specified  for
       ListGenericCommands.

CONFIGURATION KEYWORDS

       There are several "special" rstart keywords defined  for  rstartd  configuration.   Unless
       otherwise specified, there are no defaults; related features are disabled in this case.

       INTERNAL-REGISTRIES name ...
               Gives  a  space-separated  list of "MISC" registries that this system understands.
               (Registries other than this are accepted but generate a Warning.)

       INTERNAL-LOCAL-DEFAULT relative_filename
               Gives the name ($HOME relative) of the per-user config file.

       INTERNAL-GLOBAL-CONTEXTS absolute_directory_name
               Gives the name of the system-wide contexts directory.

       INTERNAL-LOCAL-CONTEXTS relative_directory_name
               Gives the name ($HOME relative) of the per-user contexts directory.

       INTERNAL-GLOBAL-COMMANDS absolute_directory_name
               Gives the name of the system-wide generic commands directory.

       INTERNAL-LOCAL-COMMANDS relative_directory_name
               Gives the name ($HOME relative) of the per-user generic commands directory.

       INTERNAL-VARIABLE-PREFIX prefix
               Gives the prefix for the configuration environment variables rstartd passes to its
               kids.

       INTERNAL-AUTH-PROGRAM authscheme program argv[0] argv[1] ...
               Specifies  the  program  to  run  to  set  up  authentication  for  the  specified
               authentication scheme.  "program argv[0] ..." gives the program  to  run  and  its
               arguments, in the same form as the EXEC keyword.

       INTERNAL-AUTH-INPUT authscheme
               Specifies the data to be given to the authorization program as its standard input.
               Each argument is passed as a single line.  $n, where n is a number, is replaced by
               the n'th argument to the "AUTH authscheme arg1 arg2 ..." line.

       INTERNAL-PRINT arbitrary text
               Prints  its arguments as a Debug message.  Mostly for rstartd debugging, but could
               be used to debug config files.

NOTES

       When using the C shell, or any other shell which runs a script every  time  the  shell  is
       started,  the script may get run several times.  In the worst case, the script may get run
       three times:
       By rsh, to run rstartd
       By rstartd, to run the specified command
       By the command, eg xterm
       rstartd currently limits lines, both from config files and requests, to BUFSIZ bytes.

       DETACH is implemented by redirecting file descriptors 0,1, and 2 to /dev/null and  forking
       before executing the program.

       CMD  is  implemented  by  invoking  $SHELL  (default  /bin/sh) with "-c" and the specified
       command as arguments.

       POSIX-UMASK is implemented in the obvious way.

       The authorization programs are run in the same  context  as  the  target  program  -  same
       environment variables, path, etc.  Long term this might be a problem.

       In  the  X context, GENERIC-CMD Terminal runs xterm.  In the OpenWindows context, GENERIC-
       CMD Terminal runs cmdtool.

       In the X context,  GENERIC-CMD  LoadMonitor  runs  xload.   In  the  OpenWindows  context,
       GENERIC-CMD LoadMonitor runs perfmeter.

       GENERIC-CMD  ListContexts lists the contents of @List in both the system-wide and per-user
       contexts directories.  It is available in all contexts.

       GENERIC-CMD ListGenericCommands lists the contents of @List in the  system-wide  and  per-
       user  commands  directories,  including  the  per-context  subdirectories  for the current
       context.  It is available in all contexts.

       CONTEXT None is not implemented.

       CONTEXT Default is really dull.

       For installation ease, the "contexts"  directory  in  the  distribution  contains  a  file
       "@Aliases"  which lists a context name and aliases for that context.  This file is used to
       make symlinks in the contexts and commands directories.

       All MISC values are passed unmodified as environment variables.

       One can mistreat rstartd in any number of ways, resulting in anything from stupid behavior
       to  core  dumps.   Other than by explicitly running programs I don't think it can write or
       delete any files, but there's no guarantee of that.  The important thing is  that  (a)  it
       probably  won't  do anything REALLY stupid and (b) it runs with the user's permissions, so
       it can't do anything catastrophic.

       @List files need not be complete; contexts or commands which are dull or which need not or
       should  not  be advertised need not be listed.  In particular, per-user @List files should
       not list things which are  in  the  system-wide  @List  files.   In  the  future,  perhaps
       ListContexts  and  ListGenericCommands  will automatically suppress lines from the system-
       wide files when there are per-user replacements for those lines.

       Error handling is OK to weak.  In particular, no attempt is made to properly report errors
       on  the  exec itself.  (Perversely, exec errors could be reliably reported when detaching,
       but not when passing the stdin/out socket to the app.)

       If compiled with -DODT1_DISPLAY_HACK, rstartd will work around a bug in SCO ODT version 1.
       (1.1?)   (The  bug  is that the X clients are all compiled with a bad library that doesn't
       know how to look host names up using DNS.  The fix is to look up a host name  in  $DISPLAY
       and  substitute  an  IP  address.)   This  is a trivial example of an incompatibility that
       rstart can hide.

SEE ALSO

       rstart(1), rsh(1), A Flexible Remote Execution Protocol Based on rsh

AUTHOR

       Jordan Brown, Quarterdeck Office Systems