rexec(3) — Linux manual page

NAME | LIBRARY | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | ATTRIBUTES | STANDARDS | HISTORY | BUGS | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON

rexec(3)                Library Functions Manual                rexec(3)

NAME         top

       rexec, rexec_af - return stream to a remote command

LIBRARY         top

       Standard C library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS         top

       #include <netdb.h>

       [[deprecated]]
       int rexec(char **restrict ahost, int inport,
                 const char *restrict user, const char *restrict passwd,
                 const char *restrict cmd, int *restrict fd2p);

       [[deprecated]]
       int rexec_af(char **restrict ahost, int inport,
                 const char *restrict user, const char *restrict passwd,
                 const char *restrict cmd, int *restrict fd2p,
                 sa_family_t af);

       rexec(), rexec_af():
           Since glibc 2.19:
               _DEFAULT_SOURCE
           In glibc up to and including 2.19:
               _BSD_SOURCE

DESCRIPTION         top

       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 .netrc file in user's 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 file
       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.

   rexec_af()
       The rexec() function works over IPv4 (AF_INET).  By contrast, the
       rexec_af() function provides an extra argument, af, that allows
       the caller to select the protocol.  This argument can be
       specified as AF_INET, AF_INET6, or AF_UNSPEC (to allow the
       implementation to select the protocol).

ATTRIBUTES         top

       For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see
       attributes(7).
       ┌───────────────────────────────────┬───────────────┬───────────┐
       │ Interface                         Attribute     Value     │
       ├───────────────────────────────────┼───────────────┼───────────┤
       │ rexec(), rexec_af()               │ Thread safety │ MT-Unsafe │
       └───────────────────────────────────┴───────────────┴───────────┘

STANDARDS         top

       None.

HISTORY         top

       rexec()
              4.2BSD, BSD, Solaris.

       rexec_af()
              glibc 2.2.

BUGS         top

       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         top

       rcmd(3), rexecd(8)

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the man-pages (Linux kernel and C library
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Linux man-pages 6.9.1          2024-05-02                       rexec(3)

Pages that refer to this page: rcmd(3)