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     STYXSERVERS(2)                                     STYXSERVERS(2)

     NAME
          styxservers - Styx server implementation assistance

     SYNOPSIS
          include "sys.m";
          include "styx.m";
          Tmsg, Rmsg: import Styx;
          include "styxservers.m";
          styxservers := load Styxservers Styxservers->PATH;
          Styxserver, Fid, Navigator: import styxservers;

          Styxserver: adt {
              fd:      ref Sys->FD;     # file server end of connection
              t:       ref Navigator;   # name space navigator for this server
              msize:   int;             # negotiated Styx message size

              new:     fn(fd: ref Sys->FD, t: ref Navigator, rootpath: big)
                            :(chan of ref Tmsg, ref Styxserver);
              reply:   fn(srv: self ref Styxserver, m: ref Rmsg): int;

              # protocol operations
              attach:  fn(srv: self ref Styxserver, m: ref Tmsg.Attach): ref Fid;
              clunk:   fn(srv: self ref Styxserver, m: ref Tmsg.Clunk): ref Fid;
              walk:    fn(srv: self ref Styxserver, m: ref Tmsg.Walk): ref Fid;
              open:    fn(srv: self ref Styxserver, m: ref Tmsg.Open): ref Fid;
              read:    fn(srv: self ref Styxserver, m: ref Tmsg.Read): ref Fid;
              remove:  fn(srv: self ref Styxserver, m: ref Tmsg.Remove): ref Fid;
              stat:    fn(srv: self ref Styxserver, m: ref Tmsg.Stat);
              default: fn(srv: self ref Styxserver, gm: ref Tmsg);

              replychan: chan of ref Rmsg;             # replies sent here if not nil.
              replydirect: fn(srv: self ref Styxserver, gm: ref Rmsg): int; # called by receiver for replychan

             # check validity
              cancreate: fn(srv: self ref Styxserver, m: ref Tmsg.Create)
                            :(ref Fid, int, ref Sys->Dir, string);
              canopen:   fn(srv: self ref Styxserver, m: ref Tmsg.Open)
                              :(ref Fid, int, ref Sys->Dir, string);
              canread:   fn(srv: self ref Styxserver, m: ref Tmsg.Read)
                            :(ref Fid, string);
              canwrite:  fn(srv: self ref Styxserver, m: ref Tmsg.Write)
                            :(ref Fid, string);
              canremove: fn(srv: self ref Styxserver, m: ref Tmsg.Remove)
                            :(ref Fid, big, string);

              # fid management
              getfid:  fn(srv: self ref Styxserver, fid: int): ref Fid;
              newfid:  fn(srv: self ref Styxserver, fid: int): ref Fid;
              delfid:  fn(srv: self ref Styxserver, c: ref Fid);
              allfids: fn(srv: self ref Styxserver): list of ref Fid;

     STYXSERVERS(2)                                     STYXSERVERS(2)

              iounit:  fn(srv: self ref Styxserver): int;
          };

          Fid: adt {
              fid:    int;       # client's fid
              path:   big;       # file's 64-bit unique path
              qtype:  int;       # file's qid type (eg, Sys->QTDIR if directory)
              isopen: int;       # non-zero if file is open
              mode:   int;       # if open, the open mode
              uname:  string;    # user name from original attach
              param:  string;    # attach aname from original attach
              data:   array of byte;   # application data

              clone:  fn(f: self ref Fid, nf: ref Fid): ref Fid;
              open:   fn(f: self ref Fid, mode: int, qid: Sys->Qid);
              walk:   fn(f: self ref Fid, qid: Sys->Qid);
          };

          Navop: adt {
              reply:  chan of (ref Sys->Dir, string);  # channel for reply
              path:   big;      # file or directory path
              pick {
              Stat =>
              Walk =>
                  name: string;
              Readdir =>
                  offset: int;  # index (origin 0) of first entry to return
                  count:  int;  # number of directory entries requested
              }
          };

          Navigator: adt {
              new:    fn(c: chan of ref Navop): ref Navigator;
              stat:   fn(t: self ref Navigator, path: big): (ref Sys->Dir, string);
              walk:   fn(t: self ref Navigator, parent: big, name: string)
                         : (ref Sys->Dir, string);
              readdir:fn(t: self ref Navigator, path: big,
                         offset, count: int): array of ref Sys->Dir;
          };

          init:      fn(styx: Styx);
          traceset:  fn(on: int);

          readbytes: fn(m: ref Styx->Tmsg.Read, d: array of byte):
                        ref Styx->Rmsg.Read;
          readstr:   fn(m: ref Styx->Tmsg.Read, s: string):
                        ref Styx->Rmsg.Read;
          openok:    fn(uname: string, omode,
                        perm: int, funame, fgname: string): int;
          openmode:  fn(o: int): int;

     DESCRIPTION

     STYXSERVERS(2)                                     STYXSERVERS(2)

          When writing a Styx file server, there are some commonly
          performed tasks that are fiddly or tedious to implement each
          time.  Styxservers provides a framework to automate some of
          these routine tasks.  In particular, it helps manage the fid
          space, implements common default processing for protocol
          messages, and assists walking around the directory hierarchy
          and reading of directories. Other tasks, such as defining
          the structure of the name space, and reading and writing
          files in it, are left to the file server program itself.
          Familiarity with Section 5 of the manual which defines the
          protocol (see intro(5)), and with the representation of Styx
          messages in Limbo (see styx(2)), is a prerequisite for use
          of this module.

          Styxservers does not define or store any of the directory
          hierarchy itself; instead it queries an external process for
          information when necessary, through a value of type
          Navigator, which encapsulates communication with that pro-
          cess.  That process must be started up independently of each
          Styxserver; a channel to such a process should be provided
          when starting a new Styxserver.  The channel carries mes-
          sages of type Navop.  Styxservers-nametree(2) provides a
          ready-made implementation of such a process that is suffi-
          cient for many applications.

          Styxserver keeps tabs on the fids that are currently in use,
          and remembers some associated information, such as the Qid
          path of the file, whether it has been opened, etc.  It does
          this using values of type Fid.

          Once the Styxservers module has been loaded, the init func-
          tion must be called before anything else, to initialise its
          internal state. The styx argument should be an implementa-
          tion of the styx(2) module, which will be used to translate
          messages.  Individual Styxserver instances do not share
          state, and are therefore independently thread-safe.

        Fid representation
          Styxservers represents each active fid as a Fid value, which
          has the following public members:

          fid    The integer fid value provided by the client to refer
                 to an active instance of a file in the file server,
                 as described in intro(5).
          path   The 64-bit qid path that uniquely identifies the file
                 on the file server, as described in intro(5). It is
                 set by f.walk and f.open (see below).
          qtype  The file's qid type; it is Sys->QTDIR if and only if
                 the fid refers to a directory.  The value is set by
                 f.walk and f.open (see below).
          isopen Non-zero if and only if the fid has been opened by an
                 open(5) message.  It is initially zero, and set by

     STYXSERVERS(2)                                     STYXSERVERS(2)

                 f.open (see below).
          mode   Valid only if the fid has been opened.  It has one of
                 the values Sys->OREAD, Sys->OWRITE, Sys->ORDWR, pos-
                 sibly ORed with Sys->ORCLOSE, corresponding to the
                 mode with which the file was opened.  It is set by
                 f.open (see below).
          uname  The name of the user that created the fid.
          param  Set by Styxservers to the aname of the initial
                 attach(5) message, and subsequently inherited by each
                 new fid created by walk(5), but not otherwise used by
                 Styxservers itself, and may be changed by the appli-
                 cation.
          data   Unused by Styxservers; for application use.  It might
                 be used, for instance, to implement a file that gives
                 different data to different clients.
          f.clone(nf)
                 Copy the current state of all members of f except
                 f.fid, into nf, and return nf. Used by
                 Styxserver.walk, and is needed by an application only
                 if it replaces that function.
          f.walk(qid)
                 Make f refer to the file with the given qid: set
                 f.path and f.qtype from qid.path and qid.qtype.  Used
                 by Styxserver.walk and is needed by an application
                 only if it replaces that function.
          f.open(mode, qid)
                 Mark f as `open', set f.mode to mode, and set path
                 and qtype to the path and type of qid. Used by the
                 implementations of open and create messages.  The
                 default implementation of open(5) in Styxserver
                 obtains the value of mode from Styxserver.canopen
                 (below), and obtains the value of qid by querying the
                 application's navigator.

        Styxserver and file server state
          Each Styxserver value holds the state for a single file
          server, including its active fids, the link to the external
          name space process, and other internal data.  Most of the
          state is manipulated through the member functions described
          below.  The exceptions are two read-only values: the
          Navigator reference srv.t which can be used to access that
          navigator; and the file descriptor srv.fd that is the file
          server's end of the connection to the Styx client.  Both
          values are initially provided by the file serving applica-
          tion, but can be accessed through the Styxserver value for
          convenience.  The file descriptor value is normally used
          only through Styxserver.reply, but will be needed directly
          if the caller needs the file descriptor value as a parameter
          to sys-pctl(2) when insulating the serving process's file
          descriptors from the surrounding environment.

          The first set of functions in Styxserver provides common and

     STYXSERVERS(2)                                     STYXSERVERS(2)

          default actions:

          Styxserver.new(fd, t, rootpath)
               Create a new Styxserver.  It returns a tuple, say (c,
               srv), and spawns a new process, which uses styx(2) to
               read and parse Styx messages read from fd, and send
               them down c; t should be a Navigator adt which the
               Styxserver can use to answer queries on the name space
               (see ``Navigating file trees'', below).  Rootpath gives
               the Qid path of the root of the served name space.

          srv.reply(m)
               Send a reply (R-message) to a client. The various util-
               ity methods, listed below, call this function to make
               their response. When srv.replychan is not nil the func-
               tion sends the R-message to this channel. It is assumed
               that a process will drain replies from it and call
               srv.replydirect when appropriate.

          srv.attach(m)
               Respond to an attach(5) message m, creating a new fid
               in the process, and returning it.  Returns nil if m.fid
               is a duplicate of an existing fid.  The value of the
               attach parameter m.aname is copied into the new fid's
               param field, as is the attaching user name, m.uname.

          srv.clunk(m)
               Respond to a clunk(5) message m, and return the old
               Fid.  Note that this does nothing about remove-on-close
               files; that should be programmed explicitly if needed.

          srv.walk(m)
               Respond to a walk(5) message m, querying srv.t for
               information on existing files.

          srv.open(m)
               Respond to an open(5) message m. This will allow a file
               to be opened if its permissions allow the specified
               mode of access.

          srv.read(m)
               Respond to a read(5) message m. If a directory is being
               read, the appropriate reply is made; for files, an
               error is given.

          srv.remove(m)
               Respond to a remove(5) message m with an error, clunk-
               ing the fid as it does so, and returning the old Fid.

          srv.stat(m)
               Respond to a stat(5) message m.

     STYXSERVERS(2)                                     STYXSERVERS(2)

          srv.default(gm)
               Respond to an arbitrary T-message, gm, as appropriate
               (eg, by calling srv.walk for a walk(5) message).  It
               responds appropriately to version(5), and replies to
               Tauth (see attach(5)) stating that authentication is
               not required.  Other messages without an associated
               Styxserver function are generally responded to with a
               ``permission denied'' error.

          All the functions above check the validity of the fids,
          modes, counts and offsets in the messages, and automatically
          reply to the client with a suitable error(5) message on
          error.

          The following further Styxserver operations are useful in
          applications that override all or part of the default han-
          dling (in particular, to process read and write requests):

          srv.canopen(m)
               Check whether it is legal to open a file as requested
               by message m: the fid is valid but not already open,
               the corresponding file exists and its permissions allow
               access in the requested mode, and if Sys->ORCLOSE is
               requested, the parent directory is writable (to allow
               the file to be removed when closed).  Canopen returns a
               tuple, say (f, mode, d, err ).  If the open request was
               invalid, f will be nil, and the string err will diag-
               nose the error (for return to the client in an
               Rmsg.Error message).  If the request was valid: f con-
               tains the Fid representing the file to be opened; mode
               is the access mode derived from m.mode, Sys->OREAD,
               Sys->OWRITE, Sys->ORDWR, ORed with Sys->ORCLOSE; d is a
               Dir value giving the file's attributes, obtained from
               the navigator; and err is nil.  Once the application
               has done what it must to open the file, it must call
               f.open to mark it open.

          srv.cancreate(m)
               Checks whether the creation of the file requested by
               message m is legal: the fid is valid but not open,
               refers to a directory, the permissions returned by
               srv.t.stat show that directory is writable by the
               requesting user, the name does not already exist in
               that directory, and the mode with which the new file
               would be opened is valid.  Cancreate returns a tuple,
               say (f, mode, d, err ).  If the creation request was
               invalid, f will be nil, and the string err will diag-
               nose the error, for use in an error reply to the
               client.  If the request was valid: f contains the Fid
               representing the parent directory; mode is the open
               mode as defined for canopen above; d is a Dir value
               containing some initial attributes for the new file or

     STYXSERVERS(2)                                     STYXSERVERS(2)

               directory; and err is nil.  The initial attributes set
               in d are: d.name (the name of the file to be created);
               d.uid and d.muid (the user that did the initial
               attach); d.gid, d.dtype, d.dev (taken from the parent
               directory's attributes); and d.mode holds the file mode
               that should be attributed to the new file (taking into
               account the parent mode, as described in open(5)). The
               caller must supply d.qid once the file has successfully
               been created, and d.atime and d.mtime; it must also
               call f.open to mark f open and set its path to the
               file's path.  If the file cannot be created success-
               fully, the application should reply with an error(5)
               message and leave f untouched.  The Fid f will then
               continue to refer to the original directory, and remain
               unopened.

          srv.canread(m)
               Checks whether read(5) message m refers to a valid fid
               that has been opened for reading, and that the count
               and file offset are non-negative.  Canread returns a
               tuple, say (f, err); if the attempted access is ille-
               gal, f will be nil, and err contains a description of
               the error, otherwise f contains the Fid corresponding
               to the file in question.  It is typically called by an
               application's implementation of Tmsg.Read to obtain the
               Fid corresponding to the fid in the message, and check
               the access.

          srv.canwrite(m)
               Checks whether message m refers to a valid fid that has
               been opened for writing, and that the file offset is
               non-negative.  Canwrite returns a tuple (f, err); if
               the attempted access is illegal, f will be nil, and err
               contains a description of the error, otherwise f con-
               tains the Fid corresponding to the file in question.
               It is typically called by an application's implementa-
               tion of Tmsg.Write to obtain the Fid corresponding to
               the fid in the message, and check the access.

          srv.canremove(m)
               Checks whether the removal of the file requested by
               message m is legal: the fid is valid, it is not a root
               directory, and there is write permission in the parent
               directory.  Canremove returns a tuple (f, path, err);
               if the attempted access is illegal, f will be nil and
               err contains a description of the error; otherwise f
               contains the Fid for the file to be removed, and path
               is the Qid.path for the parent directory.The caller
               should remove the file, and in every case must call
               srv.delfid before replying, because the protocol's
               remove operation always clunks the fid.

     STYXSERVERS(2)                                     STYXSERVERS(2)

          srv.iounit()
               Return an appropriate value for use as the iounit ele-
               ment in Rmsg.Open and Rmsg.Create replies, as defined
               in open(5), based on the message size negotiated by the
               initial version(5) message.

          The remaining functions are normally used only by servers
          that need to override default actions.  They maintain and
          access the mapping between a client's fid values presented
          in Tmsg messages and the Fid values that represent the cor-
          responding files internally.

          srv.newfid(fid)
               Create a new Fid associated with number fid and return
               it.  Return nil if the fid is already in use (implies a
               client error if the server correctly clunks fids).

          srv.getfid(fid)
               Get the Fid data associated with numeric id fid; return
               nil if there is none such (a malicious or erroneous
               client can cause this).

          srv.delfid(fid)
               Delete fid from the table of fids in the Styxserver.
               (There is no error return.)

          srv.allfids()
               Return a list of all current fids (ie, the files cur-
               rently active on the client).

          Newfid is required when processing auth(5), attach(5) and
          walk(5) messages to create new fids.  Delfid is used to
          clunk fids when processing clunk(5), remove(5), and in a
          failed walk(5) when it specified a new fid.  All other mes-
          sages should refer only to already existing fids, and the
          associated Fid data is fetched by getfid.

        Navigating file trees
          When a Styxserver instance needs to know about the names-
          pace, it queries an external process through a channel by
          sending a Navop request; each such request carries with it a
          reply channel through which the reply should be made.  The
          reply tuple has a reference to a Sys->Dir value that is
          non-nil on success, and a diagnostic string that is non-nil
          on error.

          Files in the tree are referred to by their Qid path.  The
          requests are:

          Stat
                Find a file in the hierarchy by its path, and reply
                with the corresponding Dir data if found (or a

     STYXSERVERS(2)                                     STYXSERVERS(2)

                diagnostic on error).
          Walk
                Look for file name in the directory with the given
                path.
          Readdir
                Get information on selected files in the directory
                with the given path.  In this case, the reply channel
                is used to send a sequence of values, one for each
                entry in the directory, finishing with a tuple value
                (nil,nil).  The entries to return are those selected
                by an offset that is the index (origin 0) of the first
                directory entry to return, and a count of a number of
                entries to return starting with that index.  Note that
                both values are expressed in units of directory
                entries, not as byte counts.
          Styxserver provides a Navigator adt to enable convenient
          access to this functionality; calls into the Navigator adt
          are bundled up into requests on the channel, and the reply
          returned.  The functions provided are:
          Navigator.new(c)
                    Create a new Navigator, sending requests down c.
          t.stat(path)
                    Find the file with the given path. Return a tuple
                    (d, err), where d holds directory information for
                    the file if found; otherwise err contains an error
                    message.
          t.walk(parent, name)
                    Find the file with name name inside parent direc-
                    tory parent. Return a tuple as for stat.
          t.readdir(path, offset, count)
                    Return directory data read from directory path,
                    starting at entry offset for count entries.

        Other functions
          The following functions provide some commonly used function-
          ality:

          readbytes(m, d)
                    Assuming that the file in question contains data
                    d, readbytes returns an appropriate reply to
                    read(5) message m, taking account of m.offset and
                    m.count when extracting data from d.

          readstr(m, s)
                    Assuming that the file in question contains string
                    s, readstr returns an appropriate reply to read(5)
                    message m, taking account of m.offset and m.count
                    when extracting data from the UTF-8 representation
                    of s.

          openok(uname, omode, perm, fuid, fgid)
                    Does standard permission checking, assuming user

     STYXSERVERS(2)                                     STYXSERVERS(2)

                    uname is trying to open a file with access mode
                    omode, where the file is owned by fuid, has group
                    fgid, and permissions perm. Returns true (non-
                    zero) if permission would be granted, and false
                    (zero) otherwise.

          openmode(o)
                    Checks to see whether the open mode o is well-
                    formed; if it is not, openmode returns -1; if it
                    is, it returns the mode with OTRUNC and ORCLOSE
                    flags removed.

          traceset(on)
                    If on is true (non-zero), will trace Styx requests
                    and replies, on standard error.  This option must
                    be set before creating a Styxserver, to ensure
                    that it preserves its standard error descriptor.

        Constants
          Styxservers defines a number of constants applicable to the
          writing of Styx servers, including:

          Einuse, Ebadfid, Eopen, Enotfound, Enotdir, Eperm, Ebadarg,
               Eexists
               These provide standard strings for commonly used error
               conditions, to be used in Rmsg.Error replies.

        Authentication
          If authentication is required beyond that provided at the
          link level (for instance by security-auth(2)), the server
          application must handle Tauth itself, remember the value of
          afid in that message, and generate an Rauth reply with a
          suitable Qid referring to a file with Qid.qtype of QTAUTH.
          Following successful authentication by read and write on
          that file, it must associate that status with the afid.
          Then, on a subsequent Tattach message, before calling srv
          .attach it must check that the Tattach's afid value corre-
          sponds to one previously authenticated, and reply with an
          appropriate error if not.

     SOURCE
          /appl/lib/styxservers.b

     SEE ALSO
          styxservers-nametree(2), sys-stat(2), intro(5)