NAME¶
rstart - a sample implementation of a Remote Start client
SYNOPSIS¶
rstart [-c
context] [-g] [-l
username] [-v]
hostname
command args ...
DESCRIPTION¶
Rstart is a simple implementation of a Remote Start client as defined in
"A Flexible Remote Execution Protocol Based on
rsh". It uses
rsh as its underlying remote execution mechanism.
OPTIONS¶
- -c context
- This option specifies the context in which the
command is to be run. A context specifies a general environment the
program is to be run in. The details of this environment are
host-specific; the intent is that the client need not know how the
environment must be configured. If omitted, the context defaults to
X. This should be suitable for running X programs from the host's
"usual" X installation.
- -g
- Interprets command as a generic command, as
discussed in the protocol document. This is intended to allow common
applications to be invoked without knowing what they are called on the
remote system. Currently, the only generic commands defined are
Terminal, LoadMonitor, ListContexts, and
ListGenericCommands.
- -l username
- This option is passed to the underlying rsh; it
requests that the command be run as the specified user.
- -v
- This option requests that rstart be verbose in its
operation. Without this option, rstart discards output from the
remote's rstart helper, and directs the rstart helper to
detach the program from the rsh connection used to start it. With
this option, responses from the helper are displayed and the resulting
program is not detached from the connection.
NOTES¶
This is a trivial implementation. Far more sophisticated implementations are
possible and should be developed.
Error handling is nonexistent. Without
-v, error reports from the remote
are discarded silently. With
-v, error reports are displayed.
The $DISPLAY environment variable is passed. If it starts with a colon, the
local hostname is prepended. The local domain name should be appended to
unqualified host names, but isn't.
The $SESSION_MANAGER environment variable should be passed, but isn't.
X11 authority information is passed for the current display.
ICE authority information should be passed, but isn't. It isn't completely clear
how
rstart should select what ICE authority information to pass.
Even without
-v, the sample
rstart helper will leave a shell
waiting for the program to complete. This causes no real harm and consumes
relatively few resources, but if it is undesirable it can be avoided by
explicitly specifying the "exec" command to the shell, eg
rstart somehost exec xterm
This is obviously dependent on the command interpreter being used on the remote
system; the example given will work for the Bourne and C shells.
SEE ALSO¶
rstartd(1),
rsh(1), A Flexible Remote Execution Protocol Based on
rsh
AUTHOR¶
Jordan Brown, Quarterdeck Office Systems