NAME
ipsvd-instruct - format of the ipsvd(8) instructions directory
DESCRIPTION
The internet protocol service daemons, ipsvd(7), can be told to read
and follow instructions from a directory on incoming connections to the
socket they listen on.
For mostly static instructions or for performance reasons, it is
possible to compile the instructions from a directory into a constant
database (cdb) with ipsvd-cdb(8) for faster lookup, and to tell
ipsvd(7) to read the instructions from there.
MATCHING
On each incoming connection, the ipsvd(7) matches the client’s IP
address against files in the instructions directory. For example, the
IP address a.b.c.d which reverse resolves to moa.bit.smarden.org is
matched against the following files in the instructions directory, in
this order, first match wins:
1. a.b.c.d
2. a.b.c
3. a.b
4. a
If the client’s hostname has been successfully looked up in DNS:
5. moa.bit.smarden.org
6. bit.smarden.org
7. smarden.org
8. org
And finally the catchall file ‘‘0’’ (zero):
9. 0
After successfully matching a client’s IP address or hostname against
the instructions directory, ipsvd(7) examines the file that matched the
IP address or hostname, and acts accordingly:
1. If neither the user’s read permission, nor the user’s execute
permission is set for the file, the connection is closed
immediately.
2. If the file has the user’s execute permission set, ipsvd(7)
reads the contents of the file and runs /bin/sh -c <contents>
instead of the default program prog given at the command line
for this connection.
3. If the file has the user’s read permission set, ipsvd(7) reads
the contents of the file and interprets each line as an
instruction for this connection (see below).
If the client’s IP address or hostname doesn’t match any file in the
instructions directory, the default action is taken (the program prog
is run to handle the connection).
INSTRUCTIONS
If ipsvd(7) is given instructions for an incoming connection, it reads
the corresponding file and interprets each line as follows. The file
may be empty, meaning that there is no special instruction.
Empty lines and lines starting with ‘‘#’’ are ignored.
+VAR=VALUE
environment. If the line starts with a plus (‘‘+’’), and the
string following the plus contains a ‘‘=’’, ipsvd(7) puts the
string following the plus into the environment before starting
prog to handle the connection. If the string following the plus
doesn’t contain a ‘‘=’’, ipsvd(7) makes sure that the
environment variable with the name string is not set.
Cnum[:msg]
concurrency. If the line starts with a ‘‘C’’, and is followed
by a number, the per host concurrency limit for the IP address
that initiated the connection is set to this number. If num is
zero, per host concurrency limit is disabled. If num is
followed by ‘‘:msg’’, the message msg is written to this client
if possible, if the per host concurrency limit is reached.
msg may contain backslash-escaped characters as follows: ‘‘\\’’
is converted to a single backslash, ‘‘\n’’ is converted to a new
line character, and ‘‘\r’’ is converted to a carriage return.
On multiple concurrency instructions the last processed
concurrency instruction is considered. Not all ipsvd(7)’s
support per host concurrency.
=hostname[:forward]
check hostname. If the line starts with a ‘‘=’’, and is
followed by a hostname, ipsvd(7) looks up the IP addresses for
hostname in DNS and checks if the client’s IP address matches
one of these IP addresses. If so, ipsvd(7) stops processing the
instructions here and runs prog. If hostname is followed a
colon and forward, ipsvd(7) now examines the file forward and
acts accordingly, instead of running prog. All check hostname
instructions in forward are ignored. If forward does not exist,
the connection is closed.
hostname may be ‘‘0’’ (zero), matching any IP address.
Note: Using check hostname instructions can cause significant
delay while responding to connection attempts, caused by DNS
lookups.
If ipsvd(7) cannot interpret a line, it prints a warning, discards the
line, and continues with the next instruction if any.
After processing all instructions, ipsvd(7) runs prog. If the file
contains at least one check hostname instruction, and none was
successful, it closes the connection instead of running prog.
EXAMPLE INSTRUCTIONS
+MEMORY=20000
This instruction causes the environment variable ‘‘MEMORY’’ with
the value ‘‘20000’’ to be available to the program prog that
handles the connection.
+DEBUG=
This instruction adds the variable ‘‘DEBUG’’ with an empty value
to the environment.
+LOGNAME
This instructions makes sure that the environment variable
‘‘LOGNAME’’ is unset when running prog.
C16 Set the per host concurrency to 16. A connection will be closed
silently if there are already 16 active connections from this
client’s IP address.
=floyd.dyn.smarden.org:127.0.0.1
Check IP address of the dynamic hostname floyd.dyn.smarden.org.
If one of the IP addresses floyd.dyn.smarden.org currently
resolves to matches the client’s IP address, handle the
connection through the file 127.0.0.1 in the instructions
directory.
SEE ALSO
ipsvd(7), ipsvd-cdb(8), tcpsvd(8), sslsvd(8), udpsvd(8), sslio(8)
http://smarden.org/ipsvd/
AUTHOR
Gerrit Pape <pape@smarden.org>
ipsvd-instruct(5)