Assignment 4

Due Monday, April 6, 2009 6:00 pm on-line

Supplemental pages

Objective

Your assignment is to write a history program that returns a list of events that took place on a particular day in history. The program will consist of two parts: a client and server. The server maintains the data and the client supports add and query operations.

You will also write a makefile to build your programs. Be sure to allot time for this if you have never written a makefile.

Languages

The point of this assignment is to use ONC RPC. You will need to do this assignmend in C (I suppose you can use C++; I haven't tried).

Preface

Do not attempt this assignment until you feel comfortable using Sun RPC. First, review the Appendix A of the lecture notes on Sun RPC. Then go through the RPC tutorial. Don't just read it — compile the examples and note the replacement makefile. The makefile should not be a mystery to you. If it is, go through the brief makefile tutorial (you can also find a lot of more thorough tutorials on the web).

You can also download rpcdemo.tar. Extract it with the command: 

tar xvf rpcdemo.tar

This will produce a directory called rpcdemo. In it are two directories:

step-by-step
This contains directories named step0 through step4. This takes you through an example of converting a standalone program into a client-server program. It mirrors the example in the RPC tutorial.
stringrpc
This contains a very brief example of passing and returning a string, which is crucial to this assignment. Note that for RPC you cannot define the interface as char * since the RPC compiler (rpcgen) needs to know that you're referring to a string rather than just an arbitrary pointer.

Make sure that you are doing this assignment on a system that supports ONC RPC and has the necessary support for it installed. Any Linux or OS X machine should work fine. The Rutgers cereal machines should work. Remus does not (don't try to do this assignment on remus). Romulus does and your assignment should work fine on that machine.

Finally, if you are not confident on how to proceed, I recommend that you follow the step-by-step guide. You may want to read it in any case just to ensure that you are implementing your assignment correctly.

Specifications

The server

The server, named hserver should be started on some known machine without any arguments. It accepts requests from clients in the form of remote procedure calls that are add or query operations:

add
This enters an event. It contains three parameters: the month, the date, and a string describing the event. It returns a value of zero if the insert cannot take place for some reason (this should not generally happen). Otherwise it returns 1.
query
This returns the next event in history for a specified month and date. The procedure is called with three parameters: the month, date, and identifier. The identifier is 0 for the first call. It returns two values: a string containing a description of the event and an identifier that corresponds to that event. In order to get the next event, another procedure call is made with the identifier set to the previously returned value.

The client

The client, called hist has three modes of operation. The first argument will always be the server's machine name. The second will be a string containing the operation. The additional parameter(s) will be operation-specific.

add

To add an entry, the month, date, and event have to be supplied:

hist server add month date event

For example,

$ hist multivac add 10 27 "Nylon introduced by DuPont 1938" record added

The result of the add operation is either a 0 for failure ot a 1 for success.

query

To query for events, the month and date have to be supplied.

hist server query month date

For example,

$ hist multivac query 10 27 The first of the "Federalist Papers" was published in 1787 Theodore Roosevelt, 26th president, born in New York City, 1858 radio show "You Bet Your Life" starring Groucho Marx premiered on ABC, 1947 Expo '67 closed in Montreal, 1967 James Cook is born (1466) The first New York Subway is opened (1904) Nylon introduced by DuPont 1938

The result of the add operation is either a failure message or a list of events.

WHAT TO SUBMIT

Create a plain text file named id that contains your name and RUID number. Please write your name in a leading comment in your code as well.

Please submit everything I need to compile your program. This will, at minimum, be three files: the client (hist.c), the server (hserver.c), and a makefile (Makefile).

Submit only what is required. Do not submit rpcgen output files, object files, executables, or temporary editor files.

To submit the assignment, you will create a tar or zip archive of all the files that are needed to compile the program, (including the makefile):

tar cvf a4.tar id hist.c hserver.h Makefile

or

zip a4.zip id hist.c hserver.h Makefile

Hand the assignment in using the web-based handin procedure. Go to https://handin.rutgers.edu/. If you never used web-based handin, check out the instructions at https://handin.rutgers.edu/handin/manual/stud/stud.html . The project name for this assignment is Assignment 4.

Before sending the file to me, make sure that all the components are there. If I can't compile any part, you will get no credit.

Pre-submission notes

Important: please check my notes on submitting assignments before you hand in your assignment.