RSTART(1) General Commands Manual RSTART(1)
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-spe-
cific; the intent is that the client need not know how the envi-
ronment 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 applica-
tions 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 pro-
gram from the rsh connection used to start it. With this op-
tion, 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 implementa-
tions are possible and should be developed.
Error handling is nonexistent. Without -v, error reports from the re-
mote 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 ap-
pended 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 com-
pletely 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 rela-
tively few resources, but if it is undesirable it can be avoided by ex-
plicitly 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
X Version 11 rstart 1.0.6 RSTART(1)
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