NAME

SP_multicast, SP_scat_multicast, SP_multigroup_multicast, SP_multigroup_scat_multicast - Multicast message to groups

SYNOPSIS

#include <sp.h>

int SP_multicast( mailbox mbox, service service_type, const char *group, int16 mess_type, int mess_len, const char *mess);
int SP_scat_multicast( mailbox mbox, service service_type, const char *group, int16 mess_type, const scatter scat_mess);

int SP_multigroup_multicast( mailbox mbox, service service_type, int num_groups, const char groups[][MAX_GROUP_NAME], int16 mess_type, int mess_len, const char *mess);
int SP_multigroup_scat_multicast( mailbox mbox, service service_type, int num_groups, const char groups[][MAX_GROUP_NAME], int16 mess_type, const scatter scat_mess);

DESCRIPTION

SP_multicast and its variants all can multicast send a message to one or more groups. The message is sent on a particular connection and is marked as having come from the connection who sent it. The service_type is a type field that should be set to the service this message requires. The valid flags for messages are:

UNRELIABLE_MESS
RELIABLE_MESS
FIFO_MESS
CAUSAL_MESS
AGREED_MESS
SAFE_MESS

This type can be bit ORed with other flags like SELF_DISCARD if desired. Currently SELF_DISCARD is the only additional flag.

If the SP_multicast or SP_scat_multicast versions are being used then only one group can be sent to. So the group string should include the name of the group to send to. If a multigroup varient is being used then the groups are specified by the num_groups integer and the array of group names called groups representing all the groups the message should be sent to. Each group has a string name of no more then MAX_GROUP_NAME chars. The array should have at least as many group names as the 'num_groups' parameter indicates. The Spread system will only send the message once but will deliver it to all connections which have joined at least one of the groups listed.

The mess_type This is a SHORT int (16 bits) which can be used by the application arbitrarily. The intent is that it could be used to NAME different kinds of data messages so they can be differentiated without looking into the body of the message. This value will be endian corrected before receiving.

If the non-scatter varients are being used then a single buffer is passed to the multicast call specifying the full message to be sent. The mess_len field gives the length in bytes of the message. While the mess field is a pointer to the buffer containing the message. For a scatter call both of these are replaced with one pointer, scat_mess, to a scatter structure, which is just like an iovec. This allows messages made up of several parts to be sent without an extra copy on systems which support scatter-gather.

RETURN VALUES

Returns the number of bytes sent on success or one of the following errors ( < 0 ):

ILLEGAL_SESSION: The mbox given to multicast on was illegal.
ILLEGAL_MESSAGE: The message had an illegal structure, like a scatter not filled out correctly.
CONNECTION_CLOSED: During communication to send the message errors occured and the send could not be completed.

BUGS

None.

AUTHOR