RSTART(1) MachTen Programmer’s 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-specific;
the intent is that the client need not know how
the environment 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 applications 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 program
from the rsh connection used to start it. With
this option, 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
implementations are possible and should be developed.

Error handling is nonexistant. Without -v, error reports
from the remote 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 appended 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 completely 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 relatively few resources, but if it
is undesirable it can be avoided by explicitly 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 Release 6 2