STYX(2)                                                   STYX(2)

     NAME
          Styx: Rmsg, Tmsg, dir2text, istmesg, packdir, packdirsize,
          readmesg, qid2text, unpackdir - interface to Styx file
          protocol

     SYNOPSIS
          include "styx.m";
          styx := load Styx Styx->PATH;

          Tmsg: adt {
              tag: int;
              pick {
              Readerror =>
                  error: string;      # tag is unused in this case
              Nop =>
              Flush =>
                  oldtag: int;
              Clone =>
                  fid, newfid: int;
              Walk =>
                  fid: int;
                  name: string;
              Open =>
                  fid, mode: int;
              Create =>
                  fid, perm, mode: int;
                  name: string;
              Read =>
                  fid, count: int;
                  offset: big;
              Write =>
                  fid: int;
                  offset: big;
                  data: array of byte;
              Clunk or
              Stat or
              Remove =>
                  fid: int;
              Wstat =>
                  fid: int;
                  stat: Sys->Dir;
              Attach =>
                  fid: int;
                  uname, aname: string;
              }

              read:   fn(fd: ref Sys->FD, msglim: int): ref Tmsg;
              unpack: fn(a: array of byte): (int, ref Tmsg);
              pack:   fn(t: self ref Tmsg): array of byte;
              packedsize: fn(t: self ref Tmsg): int;

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     STYX(2)                                                   STYX(2)

              text:   fn(t: self ref Tmsg): string;
          };

          Rmsg: adt {
              tag: int;
              pick {
              Nop or
              Flush =>
              Error =>
                  ename: string;
              Clunk or
              Remove or
              Clone or
              Wstat =>
                  fid: int;
              Walk or
              Create or
              Open or
              Attach =>
                  fid: int;
                  qid: Sys->Qid;
              Read =>
                  fid: int;
                  data: array of byte;
              Write =>
                  fid, count: int;
              Stat =>
                  fid: int;
                  stat: Sys->Dir;
              }

              read:   fn(fd: ref Sys->FD, msglim: int): ref Rmsg;
              unpack: fn(a: array of byte): (int, ref Rmsg);
              pack:   fn(r: self ref Rmsg): array of byte;
              packedsize: fn(r: self ref Rmsg): int;
              text:   fn(r: self ref Rmsg): string;
          };

          init:        fn();
          readmesg:    fn(fd: ref Sys->FD, msglim: int): (array of byte, string);
          istmesg:     fn(a: array of byte): int;
          packdirsize: fn(d: Sys->Dir): int;
          packdir:     fn(d: Sys->Dir): array of byte;
          unpackdir:   fn(f: array of byte): (int, Sys->Dir);
          dir2text:    fn(d: Sys->Dir): string;
          qid2text:    fn(q: Sys->Qid): string;

          NOTAG: con 16rFFFF;
          MAXRPC: con 128 + Sys->ATOMICIO;

     DESCRIPTION
          Styx provides a Limbo interface to send and receive messages

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     STYX(2)                                                   STYX(2)

          of the Styx file service protocol, described by Section 5
          this manual (a thorough reading of which is advised before
          using this module).  Init must be called before using any
          other functions in the module.

          A Styx client transmits requests to a server as `T-messages'
          and receives replies in matching `R-messages'.  A T-message
          is here represented by values of the type Tmsg, and an R-
          message by values of type Rmsg.  Every message has a tag
          value, and the alternatives of the pick adt represent the
          possible operation types of a T-message, generally with
          parameter names and types corresponding to those described
          in section 5.  The exceptions are: Tmsg.Write and Rmsg.Read
          contain an array of byte, data, to hold the data for the
          corresponding message, and the `count' parameter of the mes-
          sage is simply the length of that array; and there is an
          alternative labelled Readerror that does not appear in the
          protocol but is used to represent input errors as described
          below.

          The following functions are provided by Tmsg:

          read(fd, msglim)
               Read file descriptor fd to obtain exactly one T-message
               and return (a reference to) the corresponding Tmsg.  A
               nil value is returned on end of file.  Otherwise, if
               the read fails or the data read does not form a valid
               T-message, the value returned will be a Tmsg.Readerror
               value in which the error member describes the error.
               Msglim gives the maximum number of bytes in any accept-
               able T-message; any incoming message larger than that
               will result in a diagnostic as a Tmsg.Readerror value.
               A msglim of 0 means `no limit'.  The constant MAXRPC is
               a reasonable value on current systems.

          t.pack()
               Return an array of bytes containing the value of t in
               the machine-independent format described in Section 5.

          unpack(a)
               The array a is assumed to contain zero or more T-
               messages.  Unpack attempts to unpack the first message,
               and returns a tuple of the form (n,v).  If successful,
               n is the number of bytes at the start of a used by the
               message, and v is the corresponding Tmsg value.  If a
               contains the prefix of a valid message but more data is
               required to complete it, n is zero (and v is nil); the
               caller will typically read more data, append it to a,
               and try again.  If the message is invalid, n is -1 and
               v is again nil.

          t.packedsize()

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     STYX(2)                                                   STYX(2)

               Return the number of bytes required for the value of t
               when packed in its machine-independent format.

          t.text()
               Return a printable string showing the contents of t,
               for tracing or debugging.

          An R-message is represented by Rmsg.  Its member functions
          behave exactly as those for Tmsg, except that they operate
          on R-messages not T-messages.

          When a client reads a directory, the data returned in the
          reply must be formatted as described in read(5): an array of
          directory entries, one per file, with each entry formatted
          in a machine-independent format.  An appropriate array value
          can be produced by packdir from a Sys->Dir structure, as
          used by sys-stat(2). The space that packed representation
          will take can be calculated beforehand by packdirsize.  The
          server will usually fill the buffer for the reply to the
          read with as many entries as will fit, checking the space
          remaining against the result of packdirsize and if the value
          will fit, storing the result of packdir.

          The functions dir2text and qid2text produce printable
          strings showing the contents of the corresponding data
          structures, for use when tracing or debugging.

          Applications that acts as file servers will read T-messages
          and reply with R-messages.  They can use Tmsg.read to read
          each T-message, build an Rmsg reply value r, and use r.pack
          to produce an array of bytes to be written in reply by
          Sys->write (see sys-read(2)).

          A few specialised programs might need the lower-level func-
          tion readmesg that underlies Tmsg.read and Rmsg.read.  It
          reads a single message, which can be either a T-message or
          R-message, and returns it as an array of bytes, which can
          then be unpacked using Tmsg.unpack or Rmsg.unpack.  The
          predicate istmesg returns true if the contents of array f
          looks like a packed representation of a T-message, judging
          only by its type byte.

          When generating the nop message (see attach (5)), the con-
          stant NOTAG can be used in Tmsg.tag and Rmsg.tag to repre-
          sent `no tag value'.

     SOURCE
          /appl/lib/styx.b

     SEE ALSO
          styxlib(2), intro(5)

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