NAME
rexec - return stream to a remote command
SYNOPSIS
int rexec(char **ahost, int inport, char *user,
char *passwd, char *cmd, int *fd2p);
DESCRIPTION
This interface is obsoleted by rcmd(3).
The rexec() 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. If a username and password are both
specified, then these are used to authenticate to the foreign host;
otherwise the environment and then the user’s .netrc file in his home
directory are searched for appropriate information. If all this fails,
the user is prompted for the information.
The port inport specifies which well-known DARPA Internet port to use
for the connection; the call getservbyname("exec", "tcp") (see
getservent(3)) will return a pointer to a structure that contains the
necessary port. The protocol for connection is described in detail in
rexecd(8).
If the connection succeeds, a socket in the Internet domain of type
SOCK_STREAM is returned to the caller, and given to the remote command
as stdin and stdout. If fd2p is nonzero, then an auxiliary channel to
a control process will be setup, and a descriptor for it will be placed
in *fd2p. The control process will return diagnostic output from the
command (unit 2) on this channel, and will also accept bytes on this
channel as being Unix signal numbers, to be forwarded to the process
group of the command. The diagnostic information returned does not
include remote authorization failure, as the secondary connection is
set up after authorization has been verified. If fd2p is 0, then the
stderr (unit 2 of the remote command) will be made the same as the
stdout and no provision is made for sending arbitrary signals to the
remote process, although you may be able to get its attention by using
out-of-band data.
CONFORMING TO
Not in POSIX.1-2001. Present on the BSDs, Solaris, and many other
systems. The rexec() function appeared in 4.2BSD.
BUGS
The rexec() function sends the unencrypted password across the network.
The underlying service is considered a big security hole and therefore
not enabled on many sites, see rexecd(8) for explanations.
SEE ALSO
rcmd(3), rexecd(8)
COLOPHON
This page is part of release 3.24 of the Linux man-pages project. A
description of the project, and information about reporting bugs, can
be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.