NAME

rcmdsh —

return a stream to a remote command without superuser

SYNOPSIS

#include <unistd.h>

int
rcmdsh(char **ahost, int inport, const char *locuser, const char *remuser, const char *cmd, const char *rshprog);

DESCRIPTION

The rcmdsh() function is used by normal users to execute a command on a remote machine using an authentication scheme based on reserved port numbers using rshd(8) or the value of rshprog (if non-NULL).

The rcmdsh() function looks up the host *ahost using gethostbyname(3), returning -1 if the host does not exist. Otherwise *ahost is set to the standard name of the host and a connection is established to a server residing at the well-known Internet port “shell/tcp” (or whatever port is used by rshprog). The inport argument is ignored; it is only included to provide an interface similar to rcmd(3).

If the connection succeeds, a socket in the UNIX domain of type SOCK_STREAM is returned to the caller, and given to the remote command as stdin, stdout, and stderr.

RETURN VALUES

The rcmdsh() function returns a valid socket descriptor on success. Otherwise, -1 is returned and a diagnostic message is printed on the standard error.

HISTORY

The rcmdsh() function first appeared in OpenBSD 2.0, and made its way into FreeBSD 4.6.

BUGS

If rsh(1) encounters an error, a file descriptor is still returned instead of -1.