XTI/TLI Read/Write Interface

A user might want to establish a transport connection using exec(2) on an existing program (such as /usr/bin/cat) to process the data as it arrives over the connection. Existing programs use read(2) and write(2). XTI/TLI does not directly support a read/write interface to a transport provider, but one is available. The interface enables you to issue read(2) and write(2) calls over a transport connection in the data transfer phase. This section describes the read/write interface to the connection mode service of XTI/TLI. This interface is not available with the connectionless mode service.

#include <stropts.h>

/* Same local management and connection establishment steps. */

if (ioctl(fd, I_PUSH, "tirdwr") == −1) {
    perror(“I_PUSH of tirdwr failed”);
    exit(5);
}
close(0);
dup(fd);
execl(“/usr/bin/cat”, “/usr/bin/cat”, (char *) 0);
perror(“exec of /usr/bin/cat failed”);
exit(6);

The client invokes the read/write interface by pushing tirdwr onto the stream associated with the transport endpoint. See the description of I_PUSH in the streamio(7I) man page. The tirdwr module converts XTI/TLI above the transport provider into a pure read/write interface. With the module in place, the client calls close(2) and dup(2) to establish the transport endpoint as its standard input file, and uses /usr/bin/cat to process the input.

Pushing tirdwr onto the transport provider forces XTI/TLI to use read(2) and write(2) semantics. XTI/TLI does not preserve message boundaries when using read and write semantics. Pop tirdwr from the transport provider to restore XTI/TLI semantics (see the description of I_POP in the streamio(7I) man page.

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Caution  - Push the tirdwr module onto a stream only when the transport endpoint is in the data transfer phase. After pushing the module, the user cannot call any XTI/TLI routines. If the user invokes an XTI/TLI routine, tirdwr generates a fatal protocol error, EPROTO, on the stream, rendering it unusable. If you then pop the tirdwr module off the stream, the transport connection aborts. See the description of I_POP in the streamio(7I) man page.

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