RpcPeer(3I)

💖 RpcPeer(3I) 💖

the InterViews manual page, but make it a group chat — okay bestie, this one lives in the InterViews Reference Manual, and it's literally the blueprint for letting two services talk to each other both ways. No cap.

✨ NAME ✨

RpcPeer — support bi-directional RPC between two services 🫶

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

#include <Dispatch/rpcpeer.h>

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So here's the vibe. An RpcPeer — and honestly it's really an instance of a derived class, not the base one, more on that in a sec — tries to open a connection to another RpcPeer.

But what if the other one isn't up yet? 😭 Not a problem. If the other RpcPeer isn't running, our RpcPeer will create its own port and just... wait. Patient queen behavior. 👑

Then, the moment either RpcPeer opens a connection, each RpcPeer creates both a reader and a writer. Which means each side can send RPC requests to its opposite over the same connection. Bi-directional. Mutual. Iconic. ✨

🎀 CONSTRUCTOR 🎀

• RpcPeer(const char* lPath, int lPort = 0) — this one just stores the arguments for later use, because a base constructor literally can't call a derived class's virtual function (the way that C++ works, iykyk 💀). The derived class's constructor should call init, described right below.
• void init(const char* rPath) — find the host name and port number that the other RpcPeer registered, then try to open a connection to it. And if it's not running? Create our own port and wait for the other RpcPeer to open a connection. 🦋

💅 PUBLIC OPERATIONS 💅

• void run()
• void quitRunning()

Read RPC requests continuously until quitRunning() terminates the loop. 🌀

bestie PSA: if you're using InterViews, you do not have to call run() — the InterViews event-reading code will also read RPC requests for you. So don't do extra work for no reason, okay? 💖

🔥 PROTECTED OPERATIONS 🔥

• virtual boolean createReaderAndWriter(const char* rHost, int rPort) = 0
• virtual void createReaderAndWriter(int fd) = 0

You must define both of these functions in a derived class in order to start reading and writing RPC requests over the connection. Both of them, no skipping. 🚨

Typically both functions would create a writer using the given parameters, and then attach a reader to the writer's rpcstream. That's the whole move. Periodt. 💅

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• Dispatcher(3I)
• RpcReader(3I)
• RpcRegistry(3I)
• RpcWriter(3I)

okay that's the whole page, go forth and connect some services 💜

✧･ﾟ sign-off ｡･ﾟ✧ this gem came from InterViews, dated 27 March 1991 — yes, she's vintage, and she still ate. 🎀🦋✨