libntirpc-sys

Low-level bindings for the libntirpc library.

Some documentation for the library can be found in the Linux man pages rpc(3) and xdr(3). However, the doc has some inconsistency with the library, so we should use the doc as a reference not as a definitive guide.

Its implementation is adapted from the libtirpc-sys library.

Examples

The examples directory contains a small "hello world" RPC client-server pair built directly on the raw bindings. The client issues a single synchronous call:

use libntirpc_sys::*;

// Send `name`, receive the greeting (`wrap_string` adapts `xdr_wrapstring`
// to the generic `xdrproc_t` signature; see examples/hello_client.rs).
let stat = unsafe {
    rpc_call(
        host.as_ptr(), HELLO_PROG, HELLO_VERS, HELLO_PROC,
        Some(wrap_string),                       // encode the argument
        &mut name as *mut _ as *const c_void,
        Some(wrap_string),                       // decode the result
        &mut greeting as *mut _ as *mut c_void,
        c"udp".as_ptr(),                         // transport
    )
};
assert!(stat == clnt_stat_RPC_SUCCESS);

The pair needs the rpcbind daemon, which is used to register the server's program number and for the client to look it up:

sudo apt install rpcbind

Make sure it is running (restart it if the server fails to register):

sudo systemctl restart rpcbind

Run the server in one terminal:

cargo run --example hello_server

It should print hello server: prog=0x30000001 vers=1 on udp and register with rpcbind (check with rpcinfo -p). Then, in another terminal, call it:

cargo run --example hello_client -- Alice 127.0.0.1

which prints Hello, Alice!. Both arguments are optional (name defaults to world, host to 127.0.0.1).

Native build

Normal Cargo builds compile the packaged ntirpc v15.7 source at commit 69c40fecf260ff9172f6dd9d7b468b0a541808bc. No source is downloaded during the build, and a system-installed libntirpc is neither discovered nor linked. The archive is static and position-independent; RCU and optional Kerberos libraries remain system dependencies. Linux is the supported native platform.

This revision contains PR #414, which validates decoded RPC reply verifiers inside ntirpc. The bindings no longer replace transport callbacks or depend on a copied private layout.

Two local source patches are documented in vendor/UPSTREAM.md: static archive construction and zero-initialized GSS credential allocation. The latter replaces our process-global allocator hook; PR #414 does not fix that separate initialization defect. Upstream license notices are preserved.

Install the build dependencies on Ubuntu:

sudo apt install build-essential cmake clang libclang-dev pkg-config liburcu-dev

The optional rpcsec-gss feature additionally requires libkrb5-dev. Monitoring, LTTng, TLS and RDMA are disabled. Cross compilation requires CMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE, target RCU/Kerberos packages and bindgen's target sysroot arguments via BINDGEN_EXTRA_CLANG_ARGS; it is not yet validated.

docs.rs uses checked-in declarations and skips the native build.

Testing and ownership

This repository is the source of truth. vNFS consumes published crate releases or an explicit Cargo path override during coordinated development. Run cargo test --all-features and cargo clippy --all-targets --all-features here. The vNFS RPCSEC_GSS integration suite exercises the source-built client against a separate NFS server and KDC. Packaging and offline builds must also pass before a new source pin is released.