nbtpi(7tcp)

nbtpi -- NetBIOS TPI drivers

Synopsis

cc ... -lxti

#include <xti.h>

fd = t_open("/dev/nbcots", O_RDWR, &info);

fd = t_open("/dev/nbclts", O_RDWR, &info);

Description

The drivers nbcots and nbclts provide an interface to NetBIOS using the Transport Provider Interface (TPI) STREAMS protocol and the X/Open^® Transport Interface (XTI) library (libxti.so). This interface to NetBIOS is primarily provided to support the Advanced File and Print Server (AFPS) software, but is available for use by any user application.

Using these drivers, the NetBIOS service is accessed with the routines in the XTI library. Connection-oriented (session) service is obtained by opening /dev/nbcots, while connectionless (datagram) service is obtained by opening /dev/nbclts. Note that nbcots provides the service type T_COTS -- the orderly release facility is not supported.

Before an endpoint can be used, it must be bound to a transport address. In this case, the ``address'' bound to is actually a NetBIOS name. The name which is bound to is registered at this time if it has not already been registered locally (binding to a name that has already been registered locally is not allowed). A flag given with the name specifies whether the name should be registered as a unique name or a group name. A user may also specify that an endpoint should be bound to receive only broadcast datagrams. If the requested name cannot be bound (the name is in use on another machine, or the name is registered locally with a different type than that specified, or the name is in conflict), t_bind fails with t_errno set to TNOADDR. If a NULL address is bound, the endpoint is bound to the permanent node name.

Binding a connectionless endpoint implies a desire to receive datagrams sent to the bound name (or broadcast datagrams if the endpoint is so bound -- see below). All endpoints bound to a given name will receive a copy of each datagram received for that name.

When a connection-oriented endpoint is bound, if the connection queue length (qlen field of the t_bind structure) is greater than zero, the endpoint is set up to listen for connections on the bound name. Although it is permissible for more than one endpoint to be bound to the same name, only one may be listening (qlen > 0).

If a second bind with a non-zero queue length is attempted, it will fail with t_errno set to TNOADDR. The maximum allowed value of qlen is 4.

The address format used with the t_ primitives is given by the nbaddr structure:

   #define NB_NAMELEN              16      /* size of NetBIOS
   name */
   
   struct nbaddr {
   	char nb_type;			/* name type (see below) */
   	char nb_name[NB_NAMELEN];	/* NetBIOS name */
   };
   

   /*
    * the following are used in the nb_type field
    */
   #define NB_UNIQUE	0	/* name is unique*/
   #define NB_GROUP	1	/* name is a group name */

The nb_type field is only meaningful in the context of the t_bind primitive

it is ignored by all other primitives. If the NB_GROUP bit is set in nb_type, the name is registered as a group name.

t_sndudata sends a broadcast datagram if the destination name begins with an asterisk ().

The following table shows the values of the t_info fields returned by nbcots and nbclts:

Field nbcots nbclts

addr 18 18

options -2 -2

tsdu 65535 512

etsdu -2 -2

connect -2 -2

discon -2 -2

servtype T_COTS T_CLTS

Field	nbcots	nbclts
addr	18	18
options	-2	-2
tsdu	65535	512
etsdu	-2	-2
connect	-2	-2
discon	-2	-2
servtype	T_COTS	T_CLTS

Files

/dev/nbcots: device node for connection-oriented (session) service
/dev/nbclts: device node for connectionless (datagram) service
/dev/nb: same as /dev/nbcots (used by LM/X)
/dev/nb-dg: same as /dev/nbclts (used by LM/X)

References

netbios(7tcp)