UNIX-Connect Facilities
UNIX-Connect provides the following facilities:
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Simple File Transfer
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Remote UNIX Shell (rush)
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Network Security
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Synchronisation of the local UNIX time program to that of a remote UNIX system.
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Program to Program Communication
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Remote File Access
Remote Logon
The remote logon facility allows a UNIX user to log on to a remote Reality, SovereignX or UNIX environment. To do this, the user simply runs a program called remlog and supplies a system name. The system name supplied by the user must be a valid entry in the UNIX ROUTE-FILE. When using remlog the user can explicitly enter a user-id and password, or these can be supplied via the USERS-FILE.
Printing
The UNIX-Connect printing facilities provide the following:
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The Reality printing facility allows a UNIX user to send a print job to a formqueue in a Reality environment, by using the standard UNIX lp command and naming a ?Reality? printer as the destination. The printer name supplied by the user must have been mapped to a Reality formqueue by the system administrator.
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The network printing utility (npu) allows users to spool print jobs to network-connected printers via the UNIX lp command or the Reality spooler. In addition, the npu can be called by user-written host application programs.
For details of how to configure the UNIX-Connect printing facilities, see Printer Configuration and Remote Printing for how to use them.
Simple File Transfer
The Simple File Transfer (SFT) program allows the UNIX user to copy files to or from a Reality environment, or another UNIX environment.
When using SFT the user must supply a system name this must be a valid entry in the ROUTE-FILE. The user can also enter a user-id and password on the command line, or these can be supplied via the USERS-FILE.
See SFT Commands.
rush
The rush (remote shell) command is used from the local UNIX environment to execute commands on a remote UNIX system. The rush command connects to a remote host, executes the specified command and terminates when the command terminates. It copies its standard input to the remote command, the standard output of the remote command to its standard output, and the standard error of the remote command to its standard error.
In order to execute the command the user must supply:
System name This must be a valid entry in the UNIX ROUTE-FILE.
User-id This can be supplied explicitly by the user or via the USERS-FILE.
Command The command to be executed on the remote host.
Network Security
UNIX-Connect provides the following security features.
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Location-based Security
This makes use of a Physical Location Identifier (PLId), which indicates the method of connection used and the location of the user. This information can be used to apply different constraints to the user, depending on their location.
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User Equivalence
This makes use of the PLId to grant permission for remote users to use local UNIX user names. A remote user who is recognised in this way is ?trusted? and can connect without needing to enter a password.
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Both the above provide security for incoming connections. The USERS-FILE is an alternative to User Equivalence, but is applied to outgoing connections. A user who has an entry for a remote host in the local USERS-FILE can log in to that host without needing to enter a password.
See Network Security.
Time Synchronisation
A program called synctime allows the system administrator to set the UNIX system clock to be the same as that of a remote system. Other users can check how closely the clocks are synchronised.
See General Administration Tasks.
Program to Program Communication
The program to program communication facility allows a program running in a UNIX environment to communicate with a DataBasic program running in a Reality environment. In order to do this, the UNIX program uses a suite of library functions provided as part of the UNIX-Connect product (see the Reality C API Reference Manual for details). To initiate a connection the UNIX program must provide:
System name This must be a valid entry in the UNIX ROUTE-FILE.
User-id This can be supplied explicitly by the program or via the USERS-FILE.
Account name Supplied by the program.
Server name Supplied by the program.
DataBasic programs must use the Reality Inter-Process Communication (IPC) facility. For full details of IPC, see the Guide To Networking For Reality Users or the User?s Reference: Administration.
Remote File Access
The Interactive File Access facility allows a program running in the UNIX environment to access files in a Reality environment. In order to do this, the UNIX program uses a suite of library functions provided as part of the UNIX-Connect product (see the Reality C API Reference Manual for details). To initiate a connection to a remote database the UNIX program must provide
System name This must be a valid entry in the UNIX ROUTE-FILE.
User-id This can be supplied explicitly by the program or via the USERS-FILE.
Account name Supplied by the program.