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