curvecpclient - Man Page

curvecpclient [-q (optional)]  [-Q (optional)]  [-v (optional)]  [-c keydir(optional)]  [sname]  [pk]  [ip]  [port]  [ext]  [prog]  

This manual page documents briefly the   CurveCP commands.

A traditional UNIX-style server such as ftpd handles just   one network connection, reading input from stdin and writing output  to stdout. A "superserver" such as inetd or tcpserver listens for   network connections and starts a separate server process for   each connection.

The CurveCP command-line tools have  an extra level of modularity. The curvecpserver  superserver listens for network connections. For each connection,   curvecpserver starts the   curvecpmessage message handler;   curvecpmessage then starts a server such as ftpd.  Then ftpd sends a stream of data to curvecpmessage,   which in turn sends messages to curvecpserver,   which encrypts and authenticates the messages and sends them inside  network packets. At the same time curvecpclient receives network packets, verifies and decrypts messages inside the   packets, and passes the messages to curvecpmessage;  curvecpmessage sends a stream of data to ftpd.   The same curvecpmessage tool is also used by   curvecpclient.

curvecpserver and   curvecpclient can use programs other than   curvecpmessage. Those programs can directly  generate messages in the CurveCP message format without talking to   separate tools such as ftpd; or they can support a completely   different protocol that reuses CurveCP's cryptographic layer   but transmits different kinds of messages.

This page explains what programmers have to do to write   curvecpmessage replacements that talk to   curvecpserver and   curvecpclient.

File descriptor 8 is a pipe. Read from this pipe a length  byte n, between 1 and 68, and a 16*n-byte message. Repeat.   The pipe is set to non-blocking mode; be prepared for EAGAIN  and EWOULDBLOCK, even in the middle of a message.

This pipe reading must always be active. The   curvecpclient and   curvecpserver programs assume that every  message is read immediately. If you can't handle a message  immediately, read it and put it onto a queue. If you don't  have queue space, throw the message away; this shouldn't cause  trouble, since you have to be able to handle missing  messages in any case.

File descriptor 9 is a pipe. Write to this pipe a length  byte n, between 1 and 68, and a 16*n-byte message. Repeat.  The pipe is set to non-blocking mode; be prepared for EAGAIN  and EWOULDBLOCK, even in the middle of a message.

As a client, do not use length bytes above 40 until a message  has arrived from the server. (The messages inside CurveCP  Initiate packets are limited to 640 bytes.)

The CurveCP server does not start until it has received  a message from the client. Furthermore, the CurveCP server  must receive this message within 60 seconds of the client  starting up. (The CurveCP Initiate packet is valid for only  60 seconds after the corresponding CurveCP Cookie packet.)  This does not mean that the client must start sending  messages immediately, but it does mean that waiting for  more than a second to send a message is a bad idea.

How to use curvecpclient:

-q           optional        

no error messages

-Q           optional        

print error messages (default)

-v           optional        

print extra information

-c keydir           optional        

use this public-key directory

sname        

server's name

pk        

server's public key

ip        

server's IP address

port        

server's UDP port

ext        

server's extension

prog        

run this client

curvecpserver (1), curvecpmessage (1), inetd (8), tcpserver (1).

This manual page was written by Sergiusz Pawlowicz debian@pawlowicz.name for  the Debian system (and may be used by others). The source  of this page is a webpage http://curvecp.org/messageapi.html .  Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this  document under public domain.

This manual page was rewritten for the Debian distribution  because the original program does not have a manual page.

curvecpmakekey(1), curvecpmessage(1), curvecpprintkey(1), curvecpserver(1).