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Inter-Client Exchange Library
X Consortium Standard
X Version 11, Release &fullrelvers;
Version 1.0
RalphMor
X Consortium
199319941996
X Consortium
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the
"Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction,
including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge,
publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and
to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to
the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be
included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
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IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
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AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN
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Except as contained in this notice, the name of the X Consortium shall not be
used in advertising or otherwise to promote the sale, use or other dealings
in this Software without prior written authorization from the X Consortium.
Overview of ICE
There are numerous possible inter-client protocols, with many similarities
and common needs - authentication, version negotiation, byte
order negotiation, and so on.
The Inter-Client Exchange (ICE) protocol is intended to provide a framework
for building such protocols, allowing them to make use of common negotiation
mechanisms and to be multiplexed over a single transport connection.
The ICE Library - C Language Interface to ICE
A client that wishes to utilize ICE must first register the protocols it
understands with the ICE library. Each protocol is dynamically assigned
a major opcode ranging from 1-255 (two clients can use different
major opcodes for the same protocol). The next step for the client is either
to open a connection with another client or to wait for connections made
by other clients. Authentication may be required. A client can both
initiate connections with other clients and be
waiting for clients to connect to itself (a nested session manager is an
example). Once an ICE connection is established between the two clients, one
of the clients needs to initiate a
ProtocolSetup
in order to
"activate" a given protocol. Once the other client accepts the
ProtocolSetup
(once again, authentication may be required), the
two clients are ready to start passing messages specific to that protocol to
each other. Multiple protocols may be active on a single ICE connection.
Clients are responsible for notifying the ICE library when a protocol is no
longer active on an ICE connection, although ICE does not define how each
subprotocol triggers a protocol shutdown.
The ICE library utilizes callbacks to process incoming messages. Using
callbacks allows
ProtocolSetup
messages and authentication to happen
behind the scenes. An additional benefit is that messages never need
to be buffered up by the library when the client blocks waiting for a
particular message.
Intended Audience
This document is intended primarily for implementors of protocol libraries
layered on top of ICE. Typically, applications that wish to utilize ICE
will make calls into individual protocol libraries rather than directly
make calls into the ICE library. However, some applications will have to
make some initial calls into the ICE library in order to accept ICE
connections (for example, a session manager accepting connections from
clients). But in general, protocol libraries should be designed to hide
the inner details of ICE from applications.
Header Files and Library Name
The header file
<X11/ICE/ICElib.h>
defines all of the ICElib data structures and function prototypes.
ICElib.h
includes the header file
<X11/ICE/ICE.h>,
which defines all of the ICElib constants.
Protocol libraries that need to read and write messages should include
the header file
<X11/ICE/ICEmsg.h>.
Applications should link against ICElib using -lICE.
Note on Prefixes
The following name prefixes are used in the library to distinguish between
a client that initiates a
ProtocolSetup
and a client that
responds with a
ProtocolReply
IcePo
- Ice Protocol Originator
IcePa
- Ice Protocol Acceptor
Protocol Registration
In order for two clients to exchange messages for a given protocol, each
side must register the protocol with the ICE library. The purpose of
registration is for each side to obtain a major opcode for the protocol
and to provide callbacks for processing messages and handling authentication.
There are two separate registration functions:
One to handle the side that does a
ProtocolSetup
One to handle the side that responds with a
ProtocolReply
It is recommended that protocol registration occur before the two clients
establish an ICE connection. If protocol registration occurs after an
ICE connection is created, there can be a brief interval of time in which a
ProtocolSetup
is received, but the protocol is not registered.
If it is not possible to register a protocol before the creation of an
ICE connection, proper precautions should be taken to avoid the above race
condition.
The
function should be called for the client that initiates a
ProtocolSetup
int IceRegisterForProtocolSetup
const char *protocol_name
const char *vendor
const char *release
int version_count
IcePoVersionRec *version_recs
int auth_count
char **auth_names
IcePoAuthProc *auth_procs
IceIOErrorProc io_error_proc
protocol_name
A string specifying the name of the protocol to register.
vendor
A vendor string with semantics specified by the protocol.
release
A release string with semantics specified by the protocol.
version_count
The number of different versions of the protocol supported.
version_recs
List of versions and associated callbacks.
auth_count
The number of authentication methods supported.
auth_names
The list of authentication methods supported.
auth_procs
The list of authentication callbacks, one for each authentication method.
io_error_proc
IO error handler, or NULL.
returns the major
opcode reserved or -1 if an error occurred. In order to actually activate
the protocol, the
function needs to be called with this major opcode. Once the protocol is
activated, all messages for the protocol should be sent using this major
opcode.
A protocol library may support multiple versions of the same protocol.
The version_recs argument specifies a list of supported versions of the
protocol, which are prioritized in decreasing order of preference.
Each version record consists of a major and minor version of the protocol
as well as a callback to be used for processing incoming messages.
typedef struct {
int major_version;
int minor_version;
IcePoProcessMsgProc process_msg_proc;
} IcePoVersionRec;
The
IcePoProcessMsgProc
callback is responsible for processing the set of messages that can be
received by the client that initiated the
ProtocolSetup
For further information,
see
Authentication may be required before the protocol can become active.
The protocol library must register the authentication methods that it
supports with the ICE library.
The auth_names and auth_procs arguments are a list of authentication names
and callbacks that are prioritized in decreasing order of preference.
For information on the
IcePoAuthProc
callback, see
The
callback is invoked if the ICE connection unexpectedly breaks.
You should pass NULL for io_error_proc if not interested in being notified.
For further information,
The
function should be called for the client that responds to a
ProtocolSetup
with a
ProtocolReply
Bool IceRegisterForProtocolReply
const char *protocol_name
const char *vendor
const char *release
int version_count
IcePoVersionRec *version_recs
int auth_count
const char **auth_names
IcePoAuthProc *auth_procs
IceHostBasedAuthProc host_based_auth_proc
IceProtocolSetupProc protocol_setup_proc
IceProtocolActivateProc protocol_activate_proc
IceIOErrorProc io_error_proc
protocol_name
A string specifying the name of the protocol to register.
vendor
A vendor string with semantics specified by the protocol.
release
A release string with semantics specified by the protocol.
version_count
The number of different versions of the protocol supported.
version_recs
List of versions and associated callbacks.
auth_count
The number of authentication methods supported.
auth_names
The list of authentication methods supported.
auth_procs
The list of authentication callbacks, one for each authentication method.
host_based_auth_proc
Host based authentication callback.
protocol_setup_proc
A callback to be invoked when authentication has succeeded for a
ProtocolSetup
but before the
ProtocolReply
is sent.
protocol_activate_proc
A callback to be invoked after the
ProtocolReply
is sent.
io_error_proc
IO error handler, or NULL.
returns the major opcode reserved or -1 if an error occurred. The major
opcode should be used in all subsequent messages sent for this protocol.
A protocol library may support multiple versions of the same protocol.
The version_recs argument specifies a list of supported versions of the protocol,
which are prioritized in decreasing order of preference.
Each version record consists of a major and minor version of the protocol
as well as a callback to be used for processing incoming messages.
typedef struct {
int major_version;
int minor_version;
IcePaProcessMsgProc process_msg_proc;
} IcePaVersionRec;
The
callback is responsible for processing the set of messages that can be
received by the client that accepted the
ProtocolSetup
For further information,
see
Authentication may be required before the protocol can become active.
The protocol library must register the authentication methods that it
supports with the ICE library.
The auth_names and auth_procs arguments are a list of authentication names
and callbacks that are prioritized in decreasing order of preference.
For information on the
IcePaAuthProc,
See
If authentication fails and the client attempting to initiate
the
ProtocolSetup
has not required authentication, the
IceHostBasedAuthProc
callback is invoked with the host name of the originating client.
If the callback returns
True
the
ProtocolSetup
will succeed, even though the original
authentication failed.
Note that authentication can effectively be disabled by registering an
IceHostBasedAuthProc
which always returns
True
If no host based
authentication is allowed, you should pass NULL for host_based_auth_proc.
Bool HostBasedAuthProc
char *host_name
protocol_name
The host name of the client that sent the ProtocolSetup
The host_name argument is a string of the form protocol/hostname,
where protocol is one of {tcp, decnet, local}.
Because
ProtocolSetup
messages and authentication happen behind the scenes
via callbacks, the protocol library needs some way of being notified when the
ProtocolSetup
has completed.
This occurs in two phases.
In the first phase, the
IceProtocolSetupProc
callback is invoked after authentication has
successfully completed but before the ICE library sends a
ProtocolReply
Any resources required for this protocol should be allocated at this time.
If the
IceProtocolSetupProc
returns a successful status, the ICE library will
send the
ProtocolReply
and then invoke the
IceProtocolActivateProc
callback. Otherwise, an error will be sent to the
other client in response to the
ProtocolSetup
The
IceProtocolActivateProc
is an optional callback and should be registered only if the protocol
library intends to generate a message immediately following the
ProtocolReply
You should pass NULL for protocol_activate_proc if not interested
in this callback.
Status ProtocolSetupProc
IceConn ice_conn
int major_version
int minor_version
char *vendor
char *release
IcePointer *client_data_ret
char **failure_reason_ret
protocol_name
The ICE connection object.
major_version
The major version of the protocol.
minor_version
The minor version of the protocol.
vendor
The vendor string registered by the protocol originator.
release
The release string registered by the protocol originator.
client_data_ret
Client data to be set by callback.
failure_reason_ret
Failure reason returned.
The pointer stored in the client_data_ret argument will be passed
to the
callback whenever a message has arrived for this protocol on the
ICE connection.
The vendor and release strings should be freed with
free
when they are no longer needed.
If a failure occurs, the
IceProtocolSetupProc
should return a zero status as well as allocate and return a failure
reason string in failure_reason_ret.
The ICE library will be responsible for freeing this memory.
The
IceProtocolActivateProc
callback is defined as follows:
void ProtocolActivateProc
IceConn ice_conn
IcePointer client_data
ice_conn
The ICE connection object.
client_data
The client data set in the IceProtocolSetupProc callback.
The
callback is invoked if the ICE connection unexpectedly breaks.
You should pass NULL for io_error_proc if not interested in being notified.
For further information,
see
Callbacks for Processing Messages
When an application detects that there is new data to read on an ICE
connection (via
select
it calls the
function
When
reads an ICE message header with a major opcode other than
zero (reserved for the ICE protocol), it needs to call a function that will
read the rest of the message, unpack it, and process it accordingly.
If the message arrives at the client that initiated the
ProtocolSetup
the
IcePoProcessMsgProc
callback is invoked.
void PoProcessMsgProc
IceConn ice_conn
IcePointer client_data
int opcode
unsigned long length
Bool swap
IceReplyWaitInfo *reply_wait
Bool *reply_ready_ret
ice_conn
The ICE connection object.
client_data
Client data associated with this protocol on the ICE connection.
opcode
The minor opcode of the message.
length
The length (in 8-byte units) of the message beyond the ICE header.
swap
A flag that indicates if byte swapping is necessary.
reply_wait
Indicates if the invoking client is waiting for a reply.
reply_ready_ret
If set to
True
a reply is ready.
If the message arrives at the client that accepted the
ProtocolSetup
the
callback is invoked.
void IcePaProcessMsgProc
IceConn ice_conn
IcePointer client_data
int opcode
unsigned long length
Bool swap
ice_conn
The ICE connection object.
client_data
Client data associated with this protocol on the ICE connection.
opcode
The minor opcode of the message.
length
The length (in 8-byte units) of the message beyond the ICE header.
swap
A flag that indicates if byte swapping is necessary.
In order to read the message, both of these callbacks should use the
macros defined for this purpose (see
.).
Note that byte swapping may be necessary.
As a convenience, the length field in the ICE header will be swapped by ICElib
if necessary.
In both of these callbacks, the client_data argument is a pointer to client
data that was registered at
ProtocolSetup
time.
In the case of
IcePoProcessMsgProc
the client data was set in the call to
In the case of
the client data was set in the
IceProtocolSetupProc
callback.
The
IcePoProcessMsgProc
callback needs to check the reply_wait argument.
If reply_wait is NULL ,
the ICE library expects the function to
pass the message to the client via a callback.
For example, if this is a Session Management "Save Yourself" message,
this function should notify the client of the "Save Yourself" via a callback.
The details of how such a callback would be defined
are implementation-dependent.
However, if reply_wait is not NULL ,
then the client is waiting for
a reply or an error for a message it previously sent.
The reply_wait is of type
IceReplyWaitInfo
typedef struct {
unsigned long sequence_of_request;
int major_opcode_of_request;
int minor_opcode_of_request;
IcePointer reply;
} IceReplyWaitInfo;
IceReplyWaitInfo
contains the major/minor opcodes and sequence number of
the message for which a reply is being awaited.
It also contains a pointer to the reply message to be filled in
(the protocol library should cast this
IcePointer
to the appropriate reply type).
In most cases, the reply will have some fixed-size part, and the client waiting
for the reply will have provided a pointer to a structure to hold
this fixed-size data. If there is variable-length data, it would be
expected that the
IcePoProcessMsgProc
callback will have to allocate additional
memory and store pointer(s) to that memory in the fixed-size
structure. If the entire data is variable length (for example., a single
variable-length string), then the client waiting for the reply would probably
just pass a pointer to fixed-size space to hold a pointer, and the
IcePoProcessMsgProc
callback would allocate the storage and store the pointer.
It is the responsibility of the client receiving the reply to
free any memory allocated on its behalf.
If reply_wait is not NULL and
IcePoProcessMsgProc
has a reply or error to return in response to this reply_wait
(that is, no callback was generated), then the reply_ready_ret argument
should be set to
True
Note that an error should only be returned
if it corresponds to the reply being waited for. Otherwise, the
IcePoProcessMsgProc
should either handle the error internally or invoke an error handler
for its library.
If reply_wait is NULL,
then care must be taken not to store any value in reply_ready_ret,
because this pointer may also be NULL.
The
callback, on the other hand, should always pass
the message to the client via a callback. For example, if this is a Session
Management "Interact Request" message, this function should notify the
client of the "Interact Request" via a callback.
The reason the
callback does not have a reply_wait, like
IcePoProcessMsgProc
does, is because a process that is acting as
a server should never block for a reply (infinite blocking can
occur if the connecting client does not act properly, denying access
to other clients).
Authentication Methods
As already stated, a protocol library must register the authentication
methods that it supports with the ICE library. For each authentication
method, there are two callbacks that may be registered:
One to handle the side that initiates a ProtocolSetup
One to handle the side that accepts or rejects this request
IcePoAuthProc
is the callback invoked for the client that initiated the
ProtocolSetup
This callback must be able to respond
to the initial "Authentication Required" message or subsequent
"Authentication Next Phase" messages sent by the other client.
IcePoAuthStatus IcePoAuthStatus
IceConn ice_conn
IcePointer client_data
int opcode
ice_conn
The ICE connection object.
auth_state_ptr
A pointer to state for use by the authentication callback procedure.
clean_up
If
True
authentication is over, and the function
should clean up any state it was maintaining. The
last 6 arguments should be ignored.
swap
If
True
the auth_data may have to be byte swapped
(depending on its contents).
auth_datalen
The length (in bytes) of the authenticator data.
auth_data
The data from the authenticator.
reply_datalen_ret
The length (in bytes) of the reply data returned.
reply_data_ret
The reply data returned.
error_string_ret
If the authentication procedure encounters an error during
authentication, it should allocate and return
an error string.
Authentication may require several phases, depending on the authentication
method. As a result, the
IcePoAuthProc
may be called more than once when authenticating a client, and
some state will have to be maintained between each invocation.
At the start of each
ProtocolSetup
*auth_state_ptr is NULL,
and the function should initialize its state and set
this pointer. In subsequent invocations of the callback, the pointer
should be used to get at any state previously stored by the callback.
If needed, the network ID of the client accepting the
ProtocolSetup
can be obtained by calling the
IceConnectionString
function.
ICElib will be responsible for freeing the reply_data_ret and
error_string_ret pointers with
free
The auth_data pointer may point to a volatile block of memory.
If the data must be kept beyond this invocation of the callback, be sure
to make a copy of it.
The
IcePoAuthProc
should return one of four values:
IcePoAuthHaveReply
- a reply is available.
IcePoAuthRejected
- authentication rejected.
IcePoAuthFailed
- authentication failed.
IcePoAuthDoneCleanup
- done cleaning up.
IcePaAuthProc
is the callback invoked for the client that received the
ProtocolSetup
IcePoAuthStatus PoAuthStatus
IceConn ice_conn
IcePointer *auth_state_ptr
Bool swap
int auth_datalen
IcePointer auth_data
int *reply_datalen_ret
IcePointer *reply_data_ret
char **error_string_ret
ice_conn
The ICE connection object.
auth_state_ptr
A pointer to state for use by the authentication callback procedure.
swap
If
True
auth_data may have to be byte swapped
(depending on its contents).
auth_datalen
The length (in bytes) of the protocol originator authentication data.
auth_data
The authentication data from the protocol originator.
reply_datalen_ret
The length of the authentication data returned.
reply_data_ret
The authentication data returned.
error_string_ret
If authentication is rejected or fails, an error
string is returned.
Authentication may require several phases, depending on the authentication
method. As a result, the
IcePaAuthProc
may be called more than once when authenticating a client, and
some state will have to be maintained between each invocation.
At the start of each
ProtocolSetup
auth_datalen is zero,
*auth_state_ptr is NULL,
and the function should initialize its state and set
this pointer. In subsequent invocations of the callback, the pointer
should be used to get at any state previously stored by the callback.
If needed, the network ID of the client accepting the
ProtocolSetup
can be obtained by calling the
IceConnectionString
function.
The auth_data pointer may point to a volatile block of memory.
If the data must be kept beyond this invocation of the callback, be sure
to make a copy of it.
ICElib will be responsible for transmitting and freeing the reply_data_ret and
error_string_ret pointers with
free
The IcePaAuthProc should return one of four values:
IcePaAuthContinue - continue (or start) authentication.
IcePaAuthAccepted - authentication accepted.
IcePaAuthRejected - authentication rejected.
IcePaAuthFailed - authentication failed.
ICE Connections
In order for two clients to establish an ICE connection, one client has to be
waiting for connections, and the other client has to initiate the connection.
Most clients will initiate connections, so we discuss that first.
Opening an ICE Connection
To open an ICE connection with another client (that is, waiting
for connections), use
IceConn IceOpenConnection
char *network_ids_list
IcePointer context
Bool must_authenticate
int major_opcode_check
int error_length
char *error_string_ret
network_ids_list
Specifies the network ID(s) of the other client.
context
A pointer to an opaque object or NULL. Used to determine if an
ICE connection can be shared (see below).
must_authenticate
If True the other client may not bypass authentication.
major_opcode_check
Used to force a new ICE connection to be created (see below).
error_length
Length of the error_string_ret argument passed in.
error_string_ret
Returns a null-terminated error message, if any. The error_string_ret
argument points to user supplied memory. No more than error_length bytes
are used.
returns an opaque ICE connection object if it succeeds;
otherwise, it returns NULL.
The network_ids_list argument contains a list of network IDs separated
by commas. An attempt will be made to use the first network ID. If
that fails, an attempt will be made using the second network ID, and so on.
Each network ID has the following format:
tcp/<hostname>:<portnumber>
or
decnet/<hostname>::<objname>
or
local/<hostname>:<path>
Most protocol libraries will have some sort of open function that should
internally make a call into
When
is called, it may be possible to use a previously opened ICE connection (if
the target client is the same). However, there are cases in which shared
ICE connections are not desired.
The context argument is used to determine if an ICE connection can
be shared.
If context is NULL,
then the caller is always willing to share the connection.
If context is not NULL,
then the caller is not willing to use a previously opened ICE connection
that has a different non-NULL context associated with it.
In addition, if major_opcode_check contains a nonzero major opcode value,
a previously created ICE connection will be used only if the major opcode
is not active on the connection. This can be used to force multiple ICE
connections between two clients for the same protocol.
Any authentication requirements are handled internally by the ICE library.
The method by which the authentication data is obtained
is implementation-dependent.
The X Consortium's ICElib implementation uses an .ICEauthority file (see
Appendix A).
After
is called, the client is ready to send a
ProtocolSetup
(provided that
was called) or receive a
ProtocolSetup
(provided that
was called).
Listening for ICE Connections
Clients wishing to accept ICE connections must first call
or
so that they can listen for connections. A list of opaque "listen" objects are
returned, one for each type of transport method that is available
(for example, Unix Domain, TCP, DECnet, and so on).
Normally clients will let ICElib allocate an available name in each
transport and return listen objects. Such a client will then use
to extract the chosen names and make them
available to other clients for opening the connection. In certain
cases it may be necessary for a client to listen for connections
on pre-arranged transport object names. Such a client may use
to specify the names for the listen objects.
Status IceListenForConnections
int *count_ret
IceListenObj **listen_objs_ret
int error_length
char *error_string_ret
count_ret
Returns the number of listen objects created.
listen_objs_ret
Returns a list of pointers to opaque listen objects.
error_length
The length of the error_string_ret argument passed in.
error_string_ret
Returns a null-terminated error message, if any.
The error_string_ret points to user supplied memory.
No more than error_length bytes are used.
The return value of
is zero for failure and a positive value for success.
Status IceListenForWellKnownConnections
char *port_id
int *count_ret
IceListenObj **listen_objs_ret
int error_length
char *error_string_ret
port_id
Specifies the port identification for the address(es) to be opened. The
value must not contain the slash ("/"> or comma (".") character; thse are
reserved for future use.
count_ret
Returns the number of listen objects created.
listen_objs_ret
Returns a list of pointers to opaque listen objects.
listen_objs_ret
Returns a list of pointers to opaque listen objects.
error_length
The length of the error_string_ret argument passed in.
error_string_ret
Returns a null-terminated error message, if any. The error_string_ret
points to user supplied memory. No more than error_length bytes are used.
constructs a list
of network IDs by prepending each known transport to port_id and then
attempts to create listen objects for the result. Port_id is the portnumber,
objname, or path portion of the ICE network ID. If a listen object for
a particular network ID cannot be created the network ID is ignored.
If no listen objects are created
returns failure.
The return value of
is zero for failure and a positive value for success.
To close and free the listen objects, use
void IceFreeListenObjs
int count
IceListenObj *listen_objs
count
The number of listen objects.
listen_objs
The listen objects.
To detect a new connection on a listen object, use
select on the descriptor associated with
the listen object.
To obtain the descriptor, use
int IceGetListenConnectionNumber
IceListenObj *listen_objs
listen_obj
The listen objects.
To obtain the network ID string associated with a listen object, use
char IceGetListenConnectionString
IceListenObj listen_obj
listen_obj
The listen objects.
A network ID has the following format:
tcp/<hostname>:<portnumber>
or
decnet/<hostname>::<objname>
or
local/<hostname>:<path>
To compose a string containing a list of network IDs separated by commas
(the format recognized by
use
char IceComposeNetworkIdList
int count
IceListenObj *listen_objs
count
The number of listen objects.
listen_objs
The listen objects.
Host Based Authentication for ICE Connections
If authentication fails when a client attempts to open an
ICE connection and the initiating client has not required authentication,
a host based authentication procedure may be invoked to provide
a last chance for the client to connect. Each listen object has such a
callback associated with it, and this callback is set using the
function.
void IceSetHostBasedAuthProc
IceListenObj listen_obj
IceHostBasedAuthProc host_based_auth_proc
IceListenObj
The listen object.
host_based_auth_proc
The host based authentication procedure.
By default, each listen object has no host based authentication procedure
associated with it. Passing NULL for host_based_auth_proc turns off
host based authentication if it was previously set.
Bool HostBasedAuthProc
char *host_name
host_name
The host name of the client that tried to open an ICE connection.
The host_name argument is a string in the form
protocol/
hostname,
where protocol is one of
{tcp, decnet, local}.
If IceHostBasedAuthProc returns
True
access will be granted, even though the original authentication failed.
Note that authentication can effectively be disabled by registering an
IceHostBasedAuthProc
which always returns True
Host based authentication is also allowed at
ProtocolSetup time.
The callback is specified in the
function (see
).
Accepting ICE Connections
After a connection attempt is detected on a listen object returned by
you should call
This returns a new opaque ICE connection object.
IceConn IceAcceptConnection
IceListenObj listen_obj
IceAcceptStatus *status_ret
listen_obj
The listen object on which a new connection was detected.
status_ret
Return status information.
The status_ret argument is set to one of the following values:
IceAcceptSuccess
- the accept operation succeeded,
and the function returns a new connection object.
IceAcceptFailure
- the accept operation failed, and the function returns NULL.
IceAcceptBadMalloc
- a memory allocation failed, and the function returns NULL.
In general, to detect new connections, you should call
select
on the file descriptors associated with the listen objects.
When a new connection is detected, the
function should be called.
may return a new ICE connection that is in a pending state. This is because
before the connection can become valid, authentication may be necessary.
Because the ICE library cannot block and wait for the connection to
become valid (infinite blocking can occur if the connecting client
does not act properly), the application must wait for the connection status
to become valid.
The following pseudo-code demonstrates how connections are accepted:
new_ice_conn = IceAcceptConnection (listen_obj, &accept_status);
if (accept_status != IceAcceptSuccess)
{
close the file descriptor and return
}
status = IceConnectionStatus (new_ice_conn);
time_start = time_now;
while (status == IceConnectPending)
{
select() on {new_ice_conn, all open connections}
for (each ice_conn in the list of open connections)
if (data ready on ice_conn)
{
status = IceProcessMessages (ice_conn, NULL, NULL);
if (status == IceProcessMessagesIOError)
IceCloseConnection(ice_conn);
}
if data ready on new_ice_conn
{
/*
* IceProcessMessages is called until the connection
* is non-pending. Doing so handles the connection
* setup request and any authentication requirements.
*/
IceProcessMessages ( new_ice_conn, NULL, NULL);
status = IceConnectionStatus (new_ice_conn);
}
else
{
if (time_now - time_start > MAX_WAIT_TIME)
status = IceConnectRejected;
}
}
if (status == IceConnectAccepted)
{
Add new_ice_conn to the list of open connections
}
else
{
IceCloseConnection
new_ice_conn
}
After
is called and the connection has been
validated, the client is ready to receive a
ProtocolSetup
(provided
that
was called) or send a
ProtocolSetup
(provided that
was called).
Closing ICE Connections
To close an ICE connection created with
or
use
IceCloseStatus IceCloseConnection
IceConn ice_conn
ice_conn
The ICE connection to close.
To actually close an ICE connection, the following conditions
must be met:
The open reference count must have reached zero on this ICE connection.
When
is called, it tries to use a previously opened
ICE connection. If it is able to use an existing connection, it increments
the open reference count on the connection by one.
So, to close an ICE connection, each call to
must be matched with a call to
The connection can be closed only
on the last call to
The active protocol count must have reached zero. Each time a
ProtocolSetup
succeeds on the connection, the active protocol count
is incremented by one. When the client no longer expects to use the
protocol on the connection, the
function should be called, which decrements the active protocol count
by one (see
).
If shutdown negotiation is enabled on the connection, the client on the other
side of the ICE connection must agree to have the connection closed.
returns one of the following values:
IceClosedNow
- the ICE connection was closed at this time. The watch procedures were
invoked and the connection was freed.
IceClosedASAP
- an IO error had occurred on the connection, but
is being called within a nested
The watch procedures have been invoked at this time, but the connection
will be freed as soon as possible (when the nesting level reaches zero and
returns a status of
IceProcessMessagesConnectionClosed
IceConnectionInUse
- the connection was not closed at this time, because it is being used by
other active protocols.
IceStartedShutdownNegotiation
- the connection was not closed at this time and shutdown negotiation started
with the client on the other side of the ICE connection. When the connection
is actually closed,
will return a status of
IceProcessMessagesConnectionClosed
When it is known that the client on the other side of the ICE connection
has terminated the connection without initiating shutdown negotiation, the
function should be called to turn off shutdown negotiation. This will prevent
from writing to a broken connection.
void IceSetShutdownNegotiation
IceConn ice_conn
Bool negotiate
ice_conn
A valid ICE connection object.
negotiate
If
False
shutdown negotiating will be turned off.
To check the shutdown negotiation status of an ICE connection, use
Bool IceCheckShutdownNegotiation
IceConn ice_conn
ice_conn
A valid ICE connection object.
returns
True
if shutdown negotiation will take place on the connection;
otherwise, it returns
False
Negotiation is on by default for a connection. It
can only be changed with the
function.
Connection Watch Procedures
To add a watch procedure that will be called
each time ICElib opens a new connection via
or
or closes a connection via
use
Status IceAddConnectionWatch
IceWatchProc watch_proc
IcePointer client_data
watch_proc
The watch procedure to invoke when ICElib opens or closes a connection.
client_data
This pointer will be passed to the watch procedure.
The return value of
is zero for failure, and a positive value for success.
Note that several calls to
might share the same ICE connection. In such a case, the watch procedure
is only invoked when the connection is first created (after authentication
succeeds). Similarly, because connections might be shared, the
watch procedure is called only if
actually closes the connection (right before the IceConn is freed).
The watch procedures are very useful for applications that
need to add a file descriptor to a select mask when a new connection
is created and remove the file descriptor when the connection is destroyed.
Because connections are shared, knowing when to add and remove the file
descriptor from the select mask would be difficult without the watch
procedures.
Multiple watch procedures may be registered with the ICE library.
No assumptions should be made about their order of invocation.
If one or more ICE connections were already created by the ICE library at the
time the watch procedure is registered, the watch procedure will instantly
be invoked for each of these ICE connections (with the opening argument
set to True
The watch procedure is of type IceWatchProc
void WatchProc
IceConn ice_conn
IcePointer client_data
Bool opening
IcePointer *watch_data
ice_conn
The opened or closed ICE connection. Call
IceConnectionNumber
to get the file descriptor associated with this connection.
client_data
Client data specified in the call to
opening
If True the connection is being opened. If
False the connection is being closed.
watch_data
Can be used to save a pointer to client data.
If opening is True the client should set the
*watch_data pointer to any data it may need to save until the connection
is closed and the watch procedure is invoked again with opening set to
False
To remove a watch procedure, use
void IceRemoveConnectionWatch
IceWatchProc watch_proc
IcePointer client_data
watch_proc
The watch procedure that was passed to
client_data
The client_data pointer that was passed to
Protocol Setup and Shutdown
To activate a protocol on a given ICE connection, use
IceProtocolSetupStatus IceProtocolSetup
IceConn ice_conn
int my_opcode
IcePointer client_data
Bool must_authenticate
int *major_version_ret
int *minor_version_ret
char **vendor_ret
char **release_ret
int error_length
char *error_string_ret
ice_conn
A valid ICE connection object.
my_opcode
The major opcode of the protocol to be set up, as returned by
client_data
The client data stored in this pointer will be passed to the
IcePoProcessMsgProc callback.
must_authenticate
If True the other client may
not bypass authentication.
major_version_ret
The major version of the protocol to be used is returned.
minor_version_ret
The minor version of the protocol to be used is returned.
vendor_ret
The vendor string specified by the protocol acceptor.
release_ret
The release string specified by the protocol acceptor.
error_length
Specifies the length of the error_string_ret argument passed in.
error_string_ret
Returns a null-terminated error message, if any.
The error_string_ret argument points to user supplied memory.
No more than error_length bytes are used.
The vendor_ret and release_ret strings should be freed with
free when no longer needed.
returns one of the following values:
IceProtocolSetupSuccess - the major_version_ret,
minor_version_ret, vendor_ret, release_ret are set.
IceProtocolSetupFailure or
IceProtocolSetupIOError
- check error_string_ret for failure reason. The major_version_ret,
minor_version_ret, vendor_ret, release_ret are not set.
IceProtocolAlreadyActive
- this protocol is already active on this connection.
The major_version_ret, minor_version_ret, vendor_ret, release_ret
are not set.
To notify the ICE library when a given protocol will no longer be used
on an ICE connection, use
Status IceProtocolShutdown
IceConn ice_conn
int major_opcode
ice_conn
A valid ICE connection object.
major_opcode
The major opcode of the protocol to shut down.
The return value of
is zero for failure and a positive value for success.
Failure will occur if the major opcode was never registered OR the protocol
of the major opcode was never activated on the connection. By activated,
we mean that a ProtocolSetup succeeded on the connection.
Note that ICE does not define how each sub-protocol triggers a
protocol shutdown.
Processing Messages
To process incoming messages on an ICE connection, use
IceProcessMessagesStatus IceProcessMessages
IceConn ice_conn
IceReplyWaitInfo *reply_wait
Bool *reply_ready_ret
ice_conn
A valid ICE connection object.
reply_wait
Indicates if a reply is being waited for.
reply_ready_ret
If set to True on return, a reply is ready.
is used in two ways:
In the first, a client may generate a message and block by calling
repeatedly until it gets its reply.
In the second, a client calls
with reply_wait set to NULL in response to select
showing that there is data to read on the ICE connection.
The ICE library may process zero or more complete messages.
Note that messages that are not blocked for are always processed by
invoking callbacks.
IceReplyWaitInfo contains the major/minor opcodes
and sequence number of the message for which a reply is being awaited.
It also contains a pointer to the reply message to be filled in (the
protocol library should cast this IcePointer
to the appropriate reply type). In most
cases, the reply will have some fixed-size part, and the client waiting
for the reply will have provided a pointer to a structure to hold
this fixed-size data. If there is variable-length data, it would be
expected that the
IcePoProcessMsgProc
callback will have to allocate additional
memory and store pointer(s) to that memory in the fixed-size
structure. If the entire data is variable length (for example, a single
variable-length string), then the client waiting for the reply would probably
just pass a pointer to fixed-size space to hold a pointer, and the
IcePoProcessMsgProc
callback would allocate the storage and store the pointer.
It is the responsibility of the client receiving the reply to
free up any memory allocated on its behalf.
typedef struct {
unsigned long sequence_of_request;
int major_opcode_of_request;
int minor_opcode_of_request;
IcePointer reply;
} IceReplyWaitInfo;
If reply_wait is not NULL and
has a reply or error to return in response to this reply_wait
(that is, no callback was generated), then the reply_ready_ret argument
will be set to True
If reply_wait is NULL, then the caller may also pass NULL for
reply_ready_ret and be guaranteed that no value will be stored in
this pointer.
returns one of the following values:
IceProcessMessagesSuccess - no error occurred.
IceProcessMessagesIOError - an IO error occurred,
and the caller must explicitly close the connection by calling
IceProcessMessagesConnectionClosed
- the ICE connection has been closed (closing of the connection was deferred
because of shutdown negotiation, or because the
nesting level was not zero). Do not attempt
to access the ICE connection at this point, since it has been freed.
Ping
To send a "Ping" message to the client on the other side of the
ICE connection, use
Status IcePing
IceConn ice_conn
IcePingReplyProc ping_reply_proc
IcePointer client_data
ice_conn
A valid ICE connection object.
ping_reply_proc
The callback to invoke when the Ping reply arrives.
client_data
This pointer will be passed to the IcePingReplyProc
callback.
returns zero for failure and a positive value for success.
When
processes the Ping reply, it will invoke the
IcePingReplyProc
callback.
void PingReplyProc
IceConn ice_conn
IcePointer client_data
ice_conn
A valid ICE connection object.
client_data
The client data specified in the call to
Using ICElib Informational Functions
IceConnectStatus IceConnectionStatus
IceConn ice_conn
returns the status of an ICE connection. The possible return values are:
IceConnectPending
- the connection is not valid yet (that is, authentication is taking place).
This is only relevant to connections created by
IceConnectAccepted
- the connection has been accepted.
This is only relevant to connections created by
IceConnectRejected
- the connection had been rejected (that is, authentication failed).
This is only relevant to connections created by
IceConnectIOError
- an IO error has occurred on the connection.
char *IceVendor
IceConn ice_conn
IceVendor
returns the ICE library vendor identification
for the other side of the connection.
The string should be freed with a call to
free
when no longer needed.
char *IceRelease
IceConn ice_conn
IceRelease
returns the release identification of the ICE library
on the other side of the connection.
The string should be freed with a call to
free
when no longer needed.
int IceProtocolVersion
IceConn ice_conn
returns the major version of the ICE protocol on this connection.
int IceProtocolRevision
IceConn ice_conn
returns the minor version of the ICE protocol on this connection.
int IceConnectionNumber
IceConn ice_conn
IceConnectionNumber
returns the file descriptor of this ICE connection.
char *IceConnectionString
IceConn ice_conn
IceConnectionString
returns the network ID of the client that
accepted this connection. The string should be freed with a call to
free
when no longer needed.
unsigned long IceLastSentSequenceNumber
IceConn ice_conn
returns the sequence number of the last message sent on this ICE connection.
unsigned long IceLastReceivedSequenceNumber
IceConn ice_conn
IceLastReceivedSequenceNumber
returns the sequence number of the last message received on this
ICE connection.
Bool IceSwapping
IceConn ice_conn
returns
True
if byte swapping is necessary when reading messages on the ICE connection.
IcePointer IceGetContext
IceConn ice_conn
returns the context associated with a connection created by
ICE Messages
All ICE messages have a standard 8-byte header. The ICElib macros that
read and write messages rely on the following naming convention for message
headers:
CARD8 major_opcode;
CARD8 minor_opcode;
CARD8 data[2];
CARD32 length B32;
The 3rd and 4th bytes of the message header can be used as needed.
The length field is specified in units of 8 bytes.
Sending ICE Messages
The ICE library maintains an output buffer used for generating messages.
Protocol libraries layered on top of ICE may choose to batch messages
together and flush the output buffer at appropriate times.
If an IO error has occurred on an ICE connection, all write operations
will be ignored. For further information, see
.
To get the size of the ICE output buffer, use
int IceGetOutBufSize
IceConn ice_conn
ice_conn
A valid ICE connection object.
To flush the ICE output buffer, use
int IceFlush
IceConn ice_conn
ice_conn
A valid ICE connection object.
Note that the output buffer may be implicitly flushed if there is
insufficient space to generate a message.
The following macros can be used to generate ICE messages:
ice_conn
A valid ICE connection object.
major_opcode
The major opcode of the message.
minor_opcode
The minor opcode of the message.
header_size
The size of the message header (in bytes).
<C_data_type>
The actual C data type of the message header.
pmsg
The message header pointer. After this macro is called, the
library can store data in the message header.
is used to set up a message header on an ICE connection.
It sets the major and minor opcodes of the message, and initializes
the message's length to the length of the header. If additional
variable length data follows, the message's length field should be
updated.
ice_conn
A valid ICE connection object.
major_opcode
The major opcode of the message.
minor_opcode
The minor opcode of the message.
header_size
The size of the message header (in bytes).
extra
The size of the extra data beyond the header (in 8-byte units).
<C_data_type>
The actual C data type of the message header.
pmsg
The message header pointer. After this macro is called, the
library can store data in the message header.
pdata
Returns a pointer to the ICE output buffer that points
immediately after the message header. The variable length
data should be stored here. If there was not enough room
in the ICE output buffer, pdata is set to NULL.
is used to generate a message with a fixed (and relatively small) amount
of variable length data. The complete message must fit in the ICE output
buffer.
IceSimpleMessage
IceConn ice_conn
int major_opcode
int minor_opcode
ice_conn
A valid ICE connection object.
major_opcode
The major opcode of the message.
minor_opcode
The minor opcode of the message.
is used to generate a message that is identical
in size to the ICE header message, and has no additional data.
ice_conn
A valid ICE connection object.
offending_major_opcode
The major opcode of the protocol in which an error was detected.
offending_minor_opcode
The minor opcode of the protocol in which an error was detected.
offending_sequence_num
The sequence number of the message that caused the error.
severity
IceCanContinue
IceFatalToProtocol
or
IceFatalToConnection
error_class
The error class.
data_length
Length of data (in 8-byte units) to be written after the header.
sets up an error message header.
Note that the two clients connected by ICE may be using different
major opcodes for a given protocol. The offending_major_opcode passed
to this macro is the major opcode of the protocol for the client
sending the error message.
Generic errors, which are common to all protocols, have classes
in the range 0x8000..0xFFFF.
See the Inter-Client Exchange Protocol
standard for more details.
IceBadMinor
0x8000
IceBadState
0x8001
IceBadLength
0x8002
IceBadValue
0x8003
Per-protocol errors have classes in the range 0x0000-0x7fff.
To write data to an ICE connection, use the
macro. If the data fits into the
ICE output buffer, it is copied there. Otherwise, the ICE output buffer
is flushed and the data is directly sent.
This macro is used in conjunction with
and
IceWriteData
IceConn ice_conn
int bytes
char *data
ice_conn
A valid ICE connection object.
bytes
The number of bytes to write.
data
The data to write.
To write data as 16-bit quantities, use
IceWriteData16
IceConn ice_conn
int bytes
char *data
ice_conn
A valid ICE connection object.
bytes
The number of bytes to write.
data
The data to write.
To write data as 32-bit quantities, use
IceWriteData32
IceConn ice_conn
int bytes
char *data
ice_conn
A valid ICE connection object.
bytes
The number of bytes to write.
data
The data to write.
To write data as 32-bit quantities, use
To bypass copying data to the ICE output buffer, use
to directly send data over the network
connection. If necessary, the ICE output buffer is first flushed.
IceSendData
IceConn ice_conn
int bytes
char *data
ice_conn
A valid ICE connection object.
bytes
The number of bytes to send.
data
The data to send.
To force 32-bit or 64-bit alignment, use
A maximum of 7 pad bytes can be specified.
IceWritePad
IceConn ice_conn
int bytes
char *data
ice_conn
A valid ICE connection object.
bytes
The number of bytes to write.
data
The number of pad bytes to write.
Reading ICE Messages
The ICE library maintains an input buffer used for reading messages.
If the ICE library chooses to perform nonblocking reads (this is
implementation-dependent), then for every read operation that it makes,
zero or more complete messages may be read into the input buffer. As
a result, for all of the macros described in this section that read
messages, an actual read operation will occur on the connection only if
the data is not already present in the input buffer.
To get the size of the ICE input buffer, use
int IceGetInBufSize
IceConn ice_conn
ice_conn
A valid ICE connection object.
When reading messages, care must be taken to check for IO errors. If
any IO error occurs in reading any part of a message, the message should
be thrown out. After using any of the macros described below for reading
messages, the
macro can be used to check if an IO error occurred on the
connection. After an IO error has occurred on an ICE connection, all
read operations will be ignored. For further information, see
.
Bool IceValidIO
IceConn ice_conn
ice_conn
A valid ICE connection object.
The following macros can be used to read ICE messages.
IceReadSimpleMessage
IceConn ice_conn
<C_data_type> *pmsg
ice_conn
A valid ICE connection object.
<C_data_type>
The actual C data type of the message header.
pmsg
This pointer is set to the message header.
is used for messages that are identical in size to the 8-byte ICE header, but
use the spare 2 bytes in the header to encode additional data. Note that the
ICE library always reads in these first 8 bytes, so it can obtain the major
opcode of the message.
simply returns a pointer to these 8 bytes; it does not actually read any data
into the input buffer.
For a message with variable length data, there are two ways of reading
the message. One method involves reading the complete message in one
pass using
The second method involves reading the message header (note that this may
be larger than the 8-byte ICE header), then reading
the variable length data in chunks (see
and
IceReadCompleteMessage
IceConn ice_conn
int header_size
<C_data_type> *pmsg
char *pdata
ice_conn
A valid ICE connection object.
header_size
The size of the message header (in bytes).
<C_data_type>
The actual C data type of the message header.
pmsg
This pointer is set to the message header.
pdata
This pointer is set to the variable length data of the message.
If the ICE input buffer has sufficient space,
will read the complete message into the
ICE input buffer. Otherwise, a buffer will be allocated to hold the
variable length data. After the call, the pdata argument should
be checked against NULL to make sure that there was sufficient memory
to allocate the buffer.
After calling
and processing the message,
should be called.
IceDisposeCompleteMessage
IceConn ice_conn
char *pdata
ice_conn
A valid ICE connection object.
pdata
The pointer to the variable length data returned in
If a buffer had to be allocated to hold the variable length data (because
it did not fit in the ICE input buffer), it is freed here by ICElib.
ice_conn
A valid ICE connection object.
header_size
The size of the message header (in bytes).
<C_data_type>
The actual C data type of the message header.
pmsg
This pointer is set to the message header.
reads just the message header.
The rest of the data should be read with the
family of macros. This method of reading a message should be used when the
variable length data must be read in chunks.
To read data directly into a user supplied buffer, use
IceReadData
IceConn ice_conn
int bytes
char *pdata
ice_conn
A valid ICE connection object.
bytes
The number of bytes to read.
pdata
The data is read into this user supplied buffer.
To read data as 16-bit quantities, use
IceReadData16
IceConn ice_conn
Bool swap
int bytes
char *pdata
ice_conn
A valid ICE connection object.
swap
If True, the values will be byte swapped.
bytes
The number of bytes to read.
pdata
The data is read into this user supplied buffer.
To read data as 32-bit quantities, use
IceReadData32
IceConn ice_conn
Bool swap
int bytes
char *pdata
ice_conn
A valid ICE connection object.
swap
If True, the values will be byte swapped.
bytes
The number of bytes to read.
pdata
The data is read into this user supplied buffer.
To force 32-bit or 64-bit alignment, use
A maximum of 7 pad bytes can be specified.
IceReadPad
IceConn ice_conn
int bytes
ice_conn
A valid ICE connection object.
bytes
The number of pad bytes.
Error Handling
There are two default error handlers in ICElib:
One to handle typically fatal conditions (for example,
a connection dying because a machine crashed)
One to handle ICE-specific protocol errors
These error handlers can be changed to user-supplied routines if you
prefer your own error handling and can be changed as often as you like.
To set the ICE error handler, use
IceSetErrorHandler
IceConn ice_conn
int bytes
handler
The ICE error handler. You should pass NULL to restore the default handler.
returns the previous error handler.
The ICE error handler is invoked when an unexpected ICE protocol
error (major opcode 0) is encountered. The action of the default
handler is to print an explanatory message to
stderr
and if the severity is fatal, call
exit
with a nonzero value. If exiting
is undesirable, the application should register its own error handler.
Note that errors in other protocol
domains should be handled by their respective libraries (these libraries
should have their own error handlers).
An ICE error handler has the type of
void IceErrorHandler
IceConn ice_conn
Bool swap
int offending_minor_opcode
unsigned long offending_sequence_num
int error_class
int severity
IcePointer values
handler
The ICE connection object.
swap
A flag that indicates if the values need byte swapping.
offending_minor_opcode
The ICE minor opcode of the offending message.
offending_sequence_num
The sequence number of the offending message.
error_class
The error class of the offending message.
severity
IceCanContinue
IceFatalToProtocol
or
IceFatalToConnection
values
Any additional error values specific to the minor opcode and class.
The following error classes are defined at the ICE level:
IceBadMinor
IceBadState
IceBadLength
IceBadValue
IceBadMajor
IceNoAuth
IceNoVersion
IceSetupFailed
IceAuthRejected
IceAuthFailed
IceProtocolDuplicate
IceMajorOpcodeDuplicate
IceUnknownProtocol
For further information, see
the Inter-Client Exchange Protocol standard.
To handle fatal I/O errors, use
IceIOErrorHandler IceSetIOErrorHandler
IceIOErrorHandler handler
handler
The I/O error handler. You should pass NULL to restore the default handler.
returns the previous
IO error handler.
An ICE I/O error handler has the type of
void IceIOErrorHandler
IceConn ice_conn
ice_conn
The ICE connection object.
There are two ways of handling IO errors in ICElib:
In the first, the IO error handler does whatever is necessary
to respond to the IO error and then returns, but it does not call
The ICE connection is given a "bad IO" status, and all future reads
and writes to the connection are ignored. The next time
is called it will return a status of
IceProcessMessagesIOError
At that time, the application should call
In the second, the IO error handler does call
and then uses the longjmp
call to get back to the application's main event loop. The
setjmp and
longjmp
calls may not work properly on all platforms,
and special care must be taken to avoid memory leaks.
Therefore, this second model is less desirable.
Before the application I/O error handler is invoked, protocol libraries
that were interested in being notified of I/O errors will have their
handlers invoked. This handler is set up in the protocol registration
functions (see and
and could be used to clean up state specific to the protocol.
void IceIOErrorProc
IceConn ice_conn
ice_conn
The ICE connection object.
Note that every
callback must return. This is required
because each active protocol must be notified of the broken connection,
and the application IO error handler must be invoked afterwards.
Multi-Threading Support
To declare that multiple threads in an application will be using the ICE
library, use
IceInitThreads
Status IceInitThreads()
The
IceInitThreads
function must be the first ICElib function a
multi-threaded program calls. It must complete before any other ICElib
call is made.
IceInitThreads
returns a nonzero status if and only if it was able
to initialize the threads package successfully.
It is safe to call
IceInitThreads
more than once, although the threads package will only be initialized once.
Protocol libraries layered on top of ICElib will have to lock critical
sections of code that access an ICE connection (for example, when
generating messages). Two calls, which are generally implemented as
macros, are provided:
void IceLockConn
IceConn ice_conn
void IceUnlockConn
IceConn ice_conn
ice_conn
The ICE connection object.
To keep an ICE connection locked across several ICElib calls, applications use
and
void IceAppLockConn
IceConn ice_conn
ice_conn
The ICE connection object.
The
function completely locks out other threads using the connection
until
is called. Other threads attempting to use ICElib
calls on the connection will block.
If the program has not previously called
IceInitThreads
has no effect.
void IceAppUnlockConn
IceConn ice_conn
ice_conn
The ICE connection object.
The
function allows other threads to complete ICElib
calls on the connection that were blocked by a previous call to
from this thread. If the program has not previously called
IceInitThreads
has no effect.
Miscellaneous Functions
To allocate scratch space (for example, when generating
messages with variable data), use
IceAllocScratch
Each ICE connection has one scratch space associated with it.
The scratch space starts off as empty and grows as needed.
The contents of the scratch space is not guaranteed to be preserved
after any ICElib function is called.
char *IceAllocScratch
IceConn ice_conn
unsigned long size
ice_conn
The ICE connection object.
size
The number of bytes required.
Note that the memory returned by
IceAllocScratch
should not be freed by the caller.
The ICE library will free the memory when the ICE connection is closed.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Bob Scheifler for his thoughtful input on the design
of the ICE library. Thanks also to Jordan Brown, Larry Cable, Donna Converse,
Clive Feather, Stephen Gildea, Vania Joloboff, Kaleb Keithley,
Stuart Marks, Hiro Miyamoto, Ralph Swick, Jim VanGilder, and Mike Wexler.
Authentication Utility Functions
As discussed in this document, the means by which authentication data
is obtained by the ICE library (for
ConnectionSetup
messages or
ProtocolSetup
messages) is implementation-dependent.†
The X Consortium's ICElib implementation assumes the presence of an
ICE authority file.
This appendix describes some utility functions that manipulate an
ICE authority file. The authority file can be used to pass authentication
data between clients.
The basic operations on the .ICEauthority file are:
Get file name
Lock
Unlock
Read entry
Write entry
Search for entry
These are fairly low-level operations, and it is expected that a program,
like "iceauth", would exist to add, remove, and display entries in the file.
In order to use these utility functions, the
<X11/ICE/ICEutil.h>
header file must be included.
An entry in the .ICEauthority file is defined by the following data structure:
typedef struct {
char *protocol_name;
unsigned short protocol_data_length;
char *protocol_data;
char *network_id;
char *auth_name;
unsigned short auth_data_length;
char *auth_data;
} IceAuthFileEntry;
The protocol_name member is either "ICE" for connection setup authentication
or the subprotocol name, such as "XSMP". For each entry, protocol specific
data can be specified in the protocol_data member. This can be used
to search for old entries that need to be removed from the file.
The network_id member is the network ID of the client accepting
authentication (for example, the network ID of a session manager).
A network ID has the following form:
tcp/<hostname>:<portnumber>
or
decnet/<hostname>::<objname>
or
local/<hostname>:<path>
The auth_name member is the name of the authentication method.
The auth_data member is the actual authentication data,
and the auth_data_length member is the number of bytes in the data.
To obtain the default authorization file name, use
IceAuthFileName
char *IceAuthFileName()
If the ICEAUTHORITY environment variable if set, this value is returned.
Otherwise, the default authorization file name is $HOME/.ICEauthority.
This name is statically allocated and should not be freed.
To synchronously update the authorization file, the file must
be locked with a call to
This function takes advantage of the fact that the
link
system call will fail if the name of the new link already exists.
int IceLockAuthFile
char *file_name
int retries
int timeout
long dead
file_name
The authorization file to lock.
retries
The number of retries.
timeout
The number of seconds before each retry.
dead
If a lock already exists that is the specified dead seconds old,
it is broken.
A value of zero is used to unconditionally break an old lock.
One of three values is returned:
IceAuthLockSuccess - the lock succeeded.
IceAuthLockError - a system error occurred, and
errno may prove useful.
IceAuthLockTimeout - the specified number of
retries failed.
To unlock an authorization file, use
int IceUnlockAuthFile
char *file_name
file_name
The authorization file to unlock.
To read the next entry in an authorization file, use
IceReadAuthFileEntry
IceAuthFileEntry *IceReadAuthFileEntry
FILE *auth_file
auth_file
The authorization file.
Note that it is the responsibility of the application to open the file
for reading before calling this function. If an error is encountered,
or there are no more entries to read, NULL is returned.
Entries should be free with a call to
To write an entry in an authorization file, use
Status IceWriteAuthFileEntry
FILE *auth_file
IceAuthFileEntry *entry
auth_file
The authorization file.
entry
The entry to write.
Note that it is the responsibility of the application to open the file
for writing before calling this function. The function returns a nonzero
status if the operation was successful.
To search the default authorization file for an entry that matches a given
protocol_name/network_id/auth_name tuple, use
IceGetAuthFileEntry
IceAuthFileEntry *IceGetAuthFileEntry
const char *protocol_name
const char *network_id
const char *auth_name
auth_file
The name of the protocol to search on.
network_id
The network ID to search on.
auth_name
The authentication method to search on.
If IceGetAuthFileEntry
fails to find such an entry, NULL is returned.
To free an entry returned by
IceReadAuthFileEntry or
IceGetAuthFileEntry use
void IceFreeAuthFileEntry
IceAuthFileEntry *entry
entry
The entry to free.
MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 Authentication
The X Consortium's ICElib implementation supports a simple
MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 authentication scheme using the authority file utilities
described in Appendix A.
In this model, an application, such as a session manager, obtains a
magic cookie by calling
IceGenerateMagicCookie
and then stores it in the user's local .ICEauthority file
so that local clients can connect. In order to allow remote clients to
connect, some remote execution mechanism should be used to store the
magic cookie in the user's .ICEauthority file on a remote machine.
In addition to storing the magic cookie in the .ICEauthority file, the
application needs to call the
function in order to store the magic cookie in memory. When it comes time
for the MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 authentication procedure to accept or reject the
connection, it will compare the magic cookie presented by the requestor to
the magic cookie in memory.
char *IceGenerateMagicCookie
int length
length
The desired length of the magic cookie.
The magic cookie returned will be null-terminated. If memory can not be
allocated for the magic cookie, the function will return NULL.
Otherwise, the magic cookie should be freed with a call to
free
To store the authentication data in memory, use
Currently, this function is only used for MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1
authentication, but it may be used for additional authentication
methods in the future.
void IceSetPaAuthData
int num_entries
IceAuthDataEntry *entries
num_entries
The number of authentication data entries.
entries
The list of authentication data entries.
Each entry has associated with it a protocol name
(for example, "ICE" for ICE connection setup authentication,
"XSMP" for session management authentication), a network ID for the
"accepting" client, an authentication name (for example, MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1),
and authentication data. The ICE library
will merge these entries with previously set entries, based on the
(protocol_name, network_id, auth_name) tuple.
typedef struct {
char *protocol_name;
char *network_id;
char *auth_name;
unsigned short auth_data_length;
char *auth_data;
} IceAuthDataEntry;