RUSS
What is RUSS?
RUSS is a protocol and framework for building service-oriented servers using UNIX/Domain sockets.
RUSS is an alternative to HTTP/web technologies for services running on UNIX/Linux.
RUSS is built on some familiar ideas:
- orthogonal operations: execute, help, list
- service path: /-separated list of strings identifying a service and how to get there
- ordered list of string arguments (aka positional arguments)
- unordered collection of string attritubes as key=value pairs (like environment variables)
- exit/return value
- stream I/O over file descriptors (stdin, stdout, stderr)
The benefits of using UNIX/Domain sockets are:
- performance
- standard part of UNIX/Linux (no kernel modules needed)
- credentials are mediated by the OS
- connection between independent processes (even between different users)
- passing of descriptors between independent processes (even between different users)
More Info
Get started with RUSS v7 - Quickstart Setup.
Further information for users and developers is available in the Documentation section:
- RUSS Specification
- RUSS v7 - Tools
- RUSS v7 - Core Servers
- pyruss - RUSS for the Python Programming Language
- goruss - RUSS for the Go Programming Language
Show Me Something
First things
- + - the area that system servers register at; usually under /var/run/russ/services
- ruls - command line tool to list servers/services (think ls)
- ruhelp - command line tool to get help information (think man)
- ruexec - command line tool to execute a service
- pyruss - Python bindings for the C API
- rubb - manage servers/services
Listing Servers/Services
What's available?
debug
exec
plus
proc
set
ssh
tee
What services does the debug server provide?
chargen
conn
daytime
discard
echo
env
exit
request
session
spath
Getting Help - Built in Man Page
How do I use the debug services?
Provides services useful for debugging.
/chargen[/...]
Generate and send characters following the RFC 864 character
generator protocol sequence.
/conn[/...]
Report connection information.
/daytime
Report the date and time.
/discard[/...] [--perf]
Discard all data received from stdin. If --perf is specified,
performance feedback is reported to stderr.
/echo[/...]
Simple echo service: read from stdin and write back to stdout.
/env
Report server side environ entries.
/exit <value>
Return with given exit value (between 0 and 255).
/request[/...]
Report request information.
/session[/...]
Report session information.
/spath[/...]
Report service path information.
Running a Service
Try the character generator:
!"#$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefgh
"#$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghi
#$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghij
^C
Show "request" information (as received and sent back by the server):
protocol string (0010)
spath (/request)
op (execute)
opnum (2)
attrv[0] (X=123)
attrv[1] (Y=abc)
argv[0] (hello)
argv[1] (there)
argv[2] (world)
Call the daytime service:
Friday, February 16, 2018 11:45:50-GMT
Call the daytime service on another machine "buddy" (ssh must work without user interaction):
Friday, February 16, 2018 11:46:55-GMT
Call the daytime service from Python:
>>> import pyruss
>>> rv, ev, out, err = pyruss.execv_wait_inouterr_timeout(1000, "+/ssh/buddy/+/debug/daytime")
>>> print out
Friday, February 16, 2018 11:48:23-GMT
Echo a message, hopping through three machines "buddy", "bobby", and "bibby" (as before, ssh must work without user interaction):
hop hop hop