RPCGen.NET - Distinct RPC/XDR IDL Compiler

RPCGen.NET compiles RPC/XDR IDL ("*.x") files into C# client and server stubs.

Syntax

RPCGen.NET [ options ] filename.x

Description
The RPCGen.NET command compiles RPC/XDR IDL ".x" files into C# client and server stubs. You then integrate these stubs with your RPC client or server application, compile the complete application , and run it together with the Distinct ONC RPC/XDR for .NET DLL. The stubs are created as C# files in the current directory. RPCGen.NET creates one main stub class file per ".x" file, which has the same name as the ".x" file but has a ".cs" extension, as well as one C# class per data structure defined in the ".x" file. The server stubs include an additional stub for the server.
The main stub class is always derived from the class NetRPCClient. It defines a constructor that connects the client to the server and one method for each function defined in the RPC/XDR interface description. As with the C mapping, the interface version number is automatically appended after an underscore to the method names. All defined types in the interface description and the types of the methods input and output parameters are mapped to equivalent C# types.

XDR data structures are mapped to C# types as follows.

XDR Data Structures	.NET Types
(unsigned) int	int
(unsigned) long	int
(unsigned) short	short
(unsigned) char	char
(unsigned) hyper	long
float	float
double	double
bool	boolean
string	String
opaque	byte array
fixed length array	C# array
variable length array	C# array
optional data (pointer-like *x)	Reference to an object of class x. If x is a basic type, a special wrapper class XDRx which implements XDRType is used instead.
enum x	Class x implements XDRType with member variable int value and one constant int per enum constant.
struct x	Class x implements XDRType with member variables for each struct member.
union x	Class x implements XDRType with member variables for each union member including discriminant. No overlaying of members is supported (neither for type conversion nor for saving space).
typedef x y	Class x implements XDRType with member variable value of the redefined type y.

Each generated class implements the XDRType interface. This interface defines the methods for encoding and decoding the classes into and from an XDRStream. You can define your own types (or alter the RPCGen.NET generated files) and use them in RPC calls as long as they define these RFC 1832 (XDR) compliant encoding and decoding methods.

RPCGen.NET understands C-like comments (/* ... */) and it copies lines that are starting with a "%" symbol to the beginning of all generated output files. By default, RPCGen.NET runs a C/C++ preprocessor on the given ".x" file before translating it to C#. It defines two symbols for this preprocessor run. The symbol "RPCNET" is always defined. In addition, a context symbol with the name of the top-level ".x" file (without extension) is defined (i.e. "RPCGen.NET demo.x" defines a symbol "demo"). This allows the writing of RPC/XDR specifications with special C# related parts (although this is not recommended, it might sometimes be necessary).

Options

-c command	Specifies the name of the C/C++ preprocessor to be used. The default is "cl /C /EP /nologo" (in the current path). Specify the command line if you are using a different preprocessor (for example, "/usr/ccs/lib/cpp" on Solaris systems).
-d	Removes all input lines from the .x file which start with '%'. These lines often contain C specific comments which are no longer needed.
-f	Names the generated class after the name given in the "program" statement. Without this option, the name of the generated class is based on the name of the .x file being processed. This option is useful to override the default behavior if there is no relationship between the class name and the name of the .x file.
-m	RPCGen.NET by default generates constructors for XDR data types. If not required, this feature can be disabled by specifying this option.
-n	Do not run the C/C++ preprocessor before translating the ".x" file. This option is useful when you do not have a C compiler installed or you want to translate a file that does not contain preprocessor directives.
-o class	Names the generated class as specified by the class parameter. Without this option, the name of the generated class is based on the name of the .x file being processed. This option is useful to override the default behavior if there is no relationship between the class name and the name of the .x file.
-O path	Specifies the destination path where all generated files will be saved.
-p namespace	Specifies the namespace of the generated stub files. By default the namespace is the name of the .x file with an appended "RPC".
-P namespace	Specifies the package name of the generated stub files, creates according subdirectories and places the generated files there.
-S	Use this option to generate the server side stubs.