rock.1

.TH ROCK 1
.SH NAME
rock, rockd \- run a program over reliable sockets
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B rock
[
.B -k
]
[
.B -l
]
[
.B -d
[
.B user
]
]
.I command
[
.I arg ...
]
.SH DESCRIPTION
Rock runs the specified command over reliable sockets (rocks),
protecting from failure the network connections created by the command
process and its children.  Recoverable failures include those caused
by host IP address change, extended periods of network disconnection,
and link failure.
.PP
Rocks must be enabled at both ends of the connection.  Rock by default
assumes that the command process communicates with rock-enabled remote
peers.  Connections with ordinary peers, those that do not support
rocks, silently revert to ordinary socket behavior.
.PP
The
.B -d 
option enables reliable socket connections to ordinary peers by
redirecting the connection through a new rockd process, started by
rock, on the remote host.  Rockd must be in the path of the remote
user, either
.B $USER
or
.BR user .
Use of this option is currently limited to the commands ssh and
scp.
.PP
The
.B -k
option also loads the ckpt checkpoint library in the process.
.PP
The
.B -l
option forces suspended rocks to reconnect to
localhost.  This is useful for process migration of a
set of processes communicating over rocks.
.PP
Failed connections that cannot be recovered by rocks after 72 hours
are silently closed.
.SH EXAMPLES
Start a rocks-enabled sshd on host nob:
.IP
nob# rock sshd
.PP
Start a new rocks-enabled shell, then ssh over rocks to nob:
.PP
.RS
% rock sh 
.br
% ssh nob
.RE
.PP
Start a rocks-enabled remote shell on a host ("oldskool") that does
not have a rocks-enabled sshd:
.IP
% rock -d ssh oldskool
.SH FILES
.TP
.B librocks.so
Dynamic library loaded into the command process and its children.  It
must be in the
.B LD_LIBRARY_PATH
(see 
.IR ld.so (8))
of the command or in the 
.B INSTALL_LIB_DIR
set when rock was compiled.
.SH SOURCE
See
.BR http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~zandy/rocks .
.SH SEE ALSO
Rock loads code into the command process using
.BR LD_PRELOAD ,
which has its own limitations; see 
.IR ld.so (8).
.PP
The ckpt checkpoint library is available at
.BR http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~zandy/ckpt .
.PP
Victor C. Zandy and Barton P. Miller. "Reliable Network
Connections".  ACM MobiCom'02, Atlanta, GA, 2002.
.SH BUGS
Currently rocks only protect TCP connections.
.PP 
Rocks are not firewall friendly.
.PP
Connection recovery does not succeed when both ends change IP address
while disconnected (but note the 
.B -l
option)
.PP
Rockd requires you to type your password twice.