rxservice(1Mbnu)

rxservice -- add or remove an REXEC service

Synopsis

rxservice -a servicename [-d description] [-u] servicedef
rxservice -r servicename...
rxservice -l

Description

The rxservice command provides an administrator with a way of adding and removing REXEC services.

Options

The following options are available to the rxservice command:

-a servicename: Add an REXEC service. servicename is the name of the REXEC service being defined. Users on a client machine invoke the service via the service name. The service name is restricted to 14 characters and must be alphanumeric.
-d description: A text description (up to 256 characters in length) that describes the service.
-u: Specifies that a utmp entry is to be made on the remote host containing the mapped user's login name.
servicedef: A service definition, consisting of a character string composed of the command (with parameters) that is executed when the service is invoked. The command must be a full pathname. The parameters are parsed as tokens separated by white space, tokens enclosed in double quotes, or tokens enclosed in single quotes. If the double or single quote is to be interpreted literally, it must be preceded with a backslash (\). If a token is enclosed in single quote characters, then every character of that token is interpreted literally. If you need to use a quote in the service definition, use a different one from that used in the service name. For example, if you use double quotes in the service name, use single quotes in the service definition. The character string is limited to 256 characters. The command line is first interpreted by the shell, then by rxservice, and then by the remote shell.
-r servicename: Remove one or more REXEC services. servicename is the name of the service or services to be deleted.
-l: Displays the contents of the services file.

Files

/etc/rexec/services: REXEC services database

Usage

The following rules apply when creating a service definition:

The service definition can take parameters from the client machine; these parameters are referenced in the service definition via the macros %0 for the service name, %1 for the first parameter, %2 for the second, and so on, up to %9 for the ninth parameter.
The parameter macros are parsed as tokens consisting of the ``%'' character, followed immediately by a single digit integer representing the position of the parameter.
The special macro %* is used to reference all parameters (except %0).
If the ``%'' character is to be interpreted literally, it must be preceded by a backslash (\), be contained in a token enclosed within single quotes, or be contained in an undefined macro name.
If a service definition must reference more than nine parameters, the %* macro can be used to pass all the parameters to a shell script.

The REXEC facility defines the following macros, which can be used by any service:

%m: The address of the client machine.
%t: The name of the transport provider used to connect to the remote host.
%s: The shell for the mapped user, obtained from the /etc/passwd file.

Service definitions are required to begin with a slash (/) or a percent (%) character.

Examples

The following defines a service called rlookup, which accesses a local database via a command called dblook:

rxservice -a rlookup -d 'Remote database lookup' '/usr/bin/dblook %'

The following defines a service called rsetup, which modifies database tables via a local command called setdb. The setdb command takes the address of the client machine as a parameter.

rxservice -a rsetdb -d 'remote setup service' '/usr/bin/setdb %m'

References

rexec(1bnu), rexecve(3N), rxlist(1Mtcp)