GGATED(8)

🌸 GGATED(8) — the GEOM Gate network daemon, bestie edition 🌸

okay so first things first: this is a page from the System Manager's Manual, and the utility itself is ggated — the GEOM Gate network daemon. yes that's a lot of capital letters, we'll get through it together 🫶

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✨ NAME ✨

ggated — the GEOM Gate network daemon 💅

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

ggated [-h] [-n] [-v] [-a address] [-p port] [-F pidfile] [-R rcvbuf]
       [-S sndbuf] [exports file]

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So ggated is a network server for the GEOM Gate class. It lives on a server machine and its whole job is servicing GEOM Gate requests coming from workers that are hanging out on a client machine. Very main character, very "I'm the one holding it down" energy 👑

⚠️ Real talk though, and I need you to hear me: connections between ggatec(8) and ggated are not encrypted. Not encrypted. zero. nada. no cap. Keep that in mind before you go exporting your whole life over the network 🙈

🍓 available options

• -a address — picks the IP address to bind to. you're choosing where it lives ✨
• -h — prints the available options. the classic "help me help you" flag 💖
• -n — do not use the TCP_NODELAY option on TCP sockets. just… no delay-ing, periodt.
• -p port — the port ggated listens on for connections. default is 3080 🔥
• -F pidfile — the PID file that ggated uses.
• -R rcvbuf — size of the receive buffer to use. default is 131072 (which is 128 KiB, if you're a "please give me units" girlie) 🌸
• -S sndbuf — size of the send buffer to use. default is 131072 (128 KiB, same vibe) 🌸
• -v — do not fork, run in the foreground, and print debug information on standard output. chaotic but transparent, we love a no-hiding narrator 😭
• exports file — an alternate location for the exports file. you can absolutely move it, it's giving "my house my rules" 🏠

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💜 the exports file format, iykyk

The format of an exports file is literally as follows:

1.2.3.4         RO              /dev/cd0
1.2.3.0/24      RW              /tmp/test.img
hostname        WO              /tmp/image
hostname        RW,DIRECT       /tmp/direct-image
hostname        RW,NODIRECT     /tmp/nodirect-image

Let's break down the columns, because yes there are three and yes you need all of them 💅

The first column specifies the ip, the network with netmask, or the hostname that the export applies to. That's your "who gets to touch this" column 👀

The next column is the access flags that apply to the export:

• RO — Read-Only. the path specified will be exported to the client read only. look, don't touch 🎀
• WO — Write-Only. the path specified will be exported to the client write only. touch, don't look 🙈
• RW — Read-Write. the path specified will be exported to the client read-write. the full experience, the whole buffet 👑
• DIRECT — the path specified will always be opened with O_DIRECT for clients.
• NODIRECT — the path specified will never be opened with O_DIRECT for clients.

The final column specifies the path to export. that's it, that's the one 🌈

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⭐ how access actually gets decided (the group-chat drama)

Files are opened with the least common flags between the client and the server. Like, the intersection where everybody agrees. A client may request read or write only to a read-write export, and the server will honor the client request and open the file in the requested mode. Very "you asked nicely, so sure" 💖 But a client requesting greater access than the permissions listed in the file will be rejected. ma'am, this is a RO, please do not 💀

🔥 DIRECT vs NODIRECT, explained with feeling

DIRECT and NODIRECT are used to coerce the use of the O_DIRECT flag to open(2) when the specified path is opened.

• If DIRECT is specified, the path is always opened with O_DIRECT.
• If NODIRECT is specified, the path is never opened with O_DIRECT.

DIRECT access limits the cache effects of IO operaions on the file. The effect here is that clients accessing exports will not impact the cache of the local machine — cute, considerate, respectful of your local cache's boundaries ✨ — however it will cause greater IO utilization to the devices on which the files reside. so like, you're trading one vibe for another, choose wisely 🦋

If neither is specified, the server will use the preference specified by the client, with the default to not use O_DIRECT. And if the client specifies a preference against the server's configuration, the client preference will be silently ignored. no argument, no text back, just read receipt and nothing else 😭

🌸 FILES 🌸

• /var/run/ggated.pid — the default location of the ggated PID file. that's its little home 🏠

💅 EXIT STATUS 💅

Exit status is 0 on success, or 1 if the command fails. And to get details about the failure, ggated should be called with the -v option — that's your "okay but why" flag, use it 🔍

👑 EXAMPLES 👑

Export a CD-ROM device, a file, and a file with the O_DIRECT option — all in one go, we love a combo:

# echo "1.2.3.0/24 RO /dev/cd0" > /etc/gg.exports
# echo "client RW /image" >> /etc/gg.exports
# echo "client RW,DIRECT /image2" >> /etc/gg.exports
# echo "client RW,NODIRECT /image3" >> /etc/gg.exports
# ggated

ate. no crumbs. 🍽️

🧚 SEE ALSO 🧚

open(2), geom(4), ggatec(8), ggatel(8) — go read the whole friend group, they're all connected 💜

🌈 HISTORY 🌈

The ggated utility appeared in FreeBSD 5.3. a legend was born ✨

🎀 AUTHORS 🎀

The ggated utility as well as this manual page was written by Pawel Jakub Dawidek <pjd@FreeBSD.org>. thank you king 🫶

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💖 okay that's the whole page, you made it, I'm so proud of you. go export something responsibly. and remember: not encrypted. love you, bye 💖

signing off from the Debian edition, dated September 8, 2016, from your favorite GGATED(8) girlie — mwah 💋