9PSERVE(4)

Hi bestie! This is the 9PSERVE(4) page from the Kernel Interfaces Manual — section 4, Unix kernel interfaces — and we’re about to make 9P multiplexing make sense. 🦋✨

💖 NAME 💖

9pserve — announce and multiplex 9P service

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

9pserve [ -lnv ] [ -A aname afid ] [ -c addr ] [ -M msize ] addr

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

Okay so picture this: on Plan 9, when a user-level file server mounts itself into a name space or posts itself in /srv, the Plan 9 kernel is the one doing the multiplexing — it takes the potentially many processes accessing the server and folds them into a single 9P conversation. The user-level server doesn’t have to worry about how many processes are hitting it, or about cleaning up after a process when that process exits unexpectedly. Iconic behavior, honestly. 👑

On Unix, 9pserve steps in and takes the place of the Plan 9 kernel: it multiplexes clients onto a single server conversation and cleans up after clients when they hang up unexpectedly. No cap, that’s the whole vibe. 💅

9pserve announces a 9P service on addr and multiplexes any 9P clients connecting to addr into a single conversation with a 9P server on 9pserve’s standard input and output. When a client hangs up, 9pserve flushes any outstanding 9P transactions and clunks any outstanding fids belonging to the client. Cleanup queen fr fr. 🧹✨

Real talk, bestie: 9pserve is typically not invoked directly — use post9pservice(3) instead. 🫶

🎀 The options are: 🎀

• -l — logging; write a debugging log to addr.log.
• -n — no authentication; respond to Tauth messages with an error (see attach(9P)).
• -v — verbose; more verbose when repeated.
• -A — rewrite all attach messages to use aname and afid; used to implement srv(4)’s -a option.
• -c — multiplex clients onto a single connection to addr, instead of standard input and output.
• -M — do not initialize the connection with a Tversion message; instead assume 9P2000 and a maximum message size of msize.

🌸 SEE ALSO 🌸

• intro(4)
• intro(9p)
• 9pfuse(4)

⭐ SOURCE ⭐

/src/cmd/9pserve.c

Sign-off time 🫶 This page is 9PSERVE(4) from the Kernel Interfaces Manual, source file /src/cmd/9pserve.c. The footer just says 9PSERVE(4) — no date on it — so that’s the whole page, bestie 💅✨