STYXSERVERS(2) STYXSERVERS(2)
NAME
styxservers - 9P (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 9P 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;
Page 1 Plan 9 (printed 11/25/24)
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
Page 2 Plan 9 (printed 11/25/24)
STYXSERVERS(2) STYXSERVERS(2)
When writing a 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 9P
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
Page 3 Plan 9 (printed 11/25/24)
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 9P client. Both val-
ues are initially provided by the file serving application,
but can be accessed through the Styxserver value for conve-
nience. 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
Page 4 Plan 9 (printed 11/25/24)
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 9P 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.
Page 5 Plan 9 (printed 11/25/24)
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
Page 6 Plan 9 (printed 11/25/24)
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.
Page 7 Plan 9 (printed 11/25/24)
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
Page 8 Plan 9 (printed 11/25/24)
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
Page 9 Plan 9 (printed 11/25/24)
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 9P 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 9P 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)
Page 10 Plan 9 (printed 11/25/24)