NAME¶
XPAIntro - Introduction to the XPA Messaging System
SYNOPSIS¶
A brief introduction to the XPA messaging system, which provides seamless
communication between all kinds of Unix event-driven programs, including X
programs, Tcl/Tk programs, and Perl programs.
DESCRIPTION¶
The XPA messaging system provides seamless communication between all kinds of
Unix programs, including X programs, Tcl/Tk programs, and Perl programs. It
also provides an easy way for users to communicate with these XPA-enabled
programs by executing XPA client commands in the shell or by utilizing such
commands in scripts. Because XPA works both at the programming level and the
shell level, it is a powerful tool for unifying any analysis environment:
users and programmers have great flexibility in choosing the best level or
levels at which to access XPA services, and client access can be extended or
modified easily at any time.
A program becomes an XPA-enabled server by defining named points of public
access through which data and commands can be exchanged with other client
programs (and users). Using standard TCP sockets as a transport mechanism, XPA
supports both single-point and broadcast messaging to and from these servers.
It supports direct communication between clients and servers, or indirect
communication via an intermediate message bus emulation program. Host-based
access control is implemented, as is as the ability to communicate with XPA
servers across a network.
XPA implements a layered interface that is designed to be useful both to
software developers and to users. The interface consists of a library of XPA
client and server routines for use in programs and a suite of high-level user
programs built on top of these libraries. Using the XPA library, access points
can be added to Tcl/Tk programs, Xt programs, or to Unix programs that use the
XPA event loop or any event loop based on
select(). Client access
subroutines can be added to any Tcl/Tk or Unix program. Client access also is
supported at the command line via a suite of high-level programs.
The major components of the XPA layered interface are:
- •
- A set of XPA server routines, centered on XPANew(),
which are used by XPA server programs to tag public access points with
string identifiers and to register send and receive callbacks for these
access points.
- •
- A set of XPA client routines, centered on the
XPASet() and XPAGet(), which are used by external client
applications to exchange data and commands with an XPA server.
- •
- High-level programs, centered on xpaset and xpaget, which
allow data and information to be exchanged with XPA server programs from
the command line and from scripts. These programs have the command syntax:
[data] ⎪ xpaset [qualifiers ...]
xpaget [qualifiers ...]
- •
- An XPA name server program, xpans, through which XPA access
point names are registered by servers and distributed to clients.
Defining an XPA access point is easy: a server application calls
XPANew(),
XPACmdNew(), or the experimental
XPAInfoNew()
routine to create a named public access point. An XPA service can specify
"send" and "receive" callback procedures (or an
"info" procedure in the case of
XPAInfoNew()) to be executed
by the program when an external process either sends data or commands to this
access point or requests data or information from this access point. Either of
the callbacks can be omitted, so that a particular access point can be
specified as read\-only, read\-write, or write\-only. Application-specific
client data can be associated with these callbacks. Having defined one or more
public access points in this way, an XPA server program enters its usual event
loop (or uses the standard XPA event loop).
Clients communicate with these XPA public access points using programs such as
xpaget, xpaset, and xpainfo (at the command line), or routines such as
XPAGet(),
XPASet(), and
XPAInfo() within a program. Both
methods require specification of the name of the access point. The xpaget
program returns data or other information from an XPA server to its standard
output, while the xpaset program sends data or commands from its standard
input to an XPA application. The corresponding API routines set/get data
to/from memory, returning error messages and other info as needed. If a
template is used to specify the access point name (e.g., "ds9*"),
then communication will take place with all servers matching that template.
Please note that XPA currently is not thread\-safe. All XPA calls must be in the
same thread.
SEE ALSO¶
See
xpa(7) for a list of XPA help pages