RCMDSH(3)

NAME
rcmdsh - return a stream to a remote command without superuser

SYNOPSIS
#include <unistd.h>
int
rcmdsh(char **ahost, int inport, const char *locuser, const char *remuser, const char *cmd, char *rshprog);

DESCRIPTION
The rcmdsh() function is used by normal users to execute a command on a remote machine using an authentication scheme based on reserved port numbers using ssh(1) or the value of rshprog (if non-null). rshprog may be a fully-qualified path, a non-qualified command, or a command containing space-separated command line arguments.

The rcmdsh() function looks up the host *ahost using gethostbyname(3) and, if the host exists, *ahost is set to the standard name of the host. A connection is then established to a server residing at the well-known Internet port shell/tcp (or whatever port is used by rshprog). The parameter inport is ignored; it is only included to provide an interface similar to rcmd(3).

If the connection succeeds, a socket in the UNIX-domain of type SOCK_STREAM is returned to the caller, and given to the remote command as stdin and stdout, and stderr.

DIAGNOSTICS
The rcmdsh() function returns a valid socket descriptor on success. It returns -1 on error and prints a diagnostic message on the standard error.

SEE ALSO
ssh(1), socketpair(2), rcmd(3)

HISTORY
The rcmdsh() function first appeared in OpenBSD 2.0.

BUGS
If ssh(1) encounters an error, a file descriptor is still returned instead of -1.