

This file describes how to invoke the tests in the
$ACE_ROOT/examples/Service_Configurator/IPC-test/{client,server}
directories.  These tests exercise all of the ACE IPC SAP
communication mechanisms, the Reactor event demultiplexor, and the
Service Configurator dynamic service configuration framework.  To gain
a deeper understanding of what is going on, you should read the the
Wrapper Facade, Reactor, and Component Configurator patterns in POSA2
<http://www.dre.vanderbilt.edu/~schmidt/POSA/> and check out the following
papers on the ACE framework components:

http://www.dre.vanderbilt.edu/~schmidt/PDF/IPC_SAP-92.pdf
http://www.dre.vanderbilt.edu/~schmidt/PDF/Reactor1-93.pdf
http://www.dre.vanderbilt.edu/~schmidt/PDF/Reactor2-93.pdf
http://www.dre.vanderbilt.edu/~schmidt/PDF/reactor-rules.pdf
http://www.dre.vanderbilt.edu/~schmidt/PDF/Svc-Conf.pdf

The key to running these client/server tests is to understand the
purpose of the svc.conf file located in the
$ACE_ROOT/examples/Service_Configurator/IPC-test/server/ directory.
This file contains a list of services that may be dynamically
configured into a the address space of a network daemon process.  If
you look at the example svc.conf file included in the tests you'll see
that some entries are commented out (the comment symbol is the '#',
which is an "ignore until end-of-line comment" with the same semantics
as the UNIX C and Bourne shells).  Before reading any further, take a
look at this svc.conf file with your favorite editor or file browser.

There are several types of entries in this file.  The two most
important are the lines beginning with the keywords "static" and
"dynamic".  For example, the first non-commented line says:

static ACE_Service_Manager "-d -p 3911"

When this line is parsed at startup time by the Service Configurator
object in the ./server_test executable, it causes the pre-configured
Svc_Manager object to be initialized with an "argv" argument of "-d -p
3911."  This results in TCP port 3911 being created to listen
connection requests from clients.  To see how this works do the
following:

1. Comment out all the other lines except

   static Svc_Manager "-d -p 3911"

   in the svc.conf file

2. Start up the ./server_test executable in one window, as follows:

   % ./server_test -d

3. Make another window on the *same* host and cd to the ./client/
   directory

4. Run the ./remote_service_directory_test program as follows:

	% ./remote_service_directory_test -p 3911 -h localhost

If everything has been compiled and initialized correctly, you should
get the following message:

	Svc_Manager 3911/tcp # lists all services in the daemon

This message is telling you that the Svc_Manager is currently the only
service that is active within the ./server_test program.  To configure
and activate another service dynamically, perform the following steps:

1. *Without* shutting down the ./server_test program, edit the svc.conf
   file.  Comment out the Svc_Manager line by adding a '#' at the
   front, i.e.:

   # static Svc_Manager "-d -p 3911"

   and then uncomment the second line:

   dynamic Remote_Brdcast Service_Object * ./IPC_Tests_Server:remote_broadcast "-p 10001"

2. If you're running on an OS platform that supports SIGHUP, send the
   SIGHUP signal to the process running the ./server_test program.
   This will cause the ./server_test program to reconfigure itself
   based on the new contents of the svc.conf file.  Not every platform
   supports SIGHUP. However, the remote_service_directory_test in
   ./client/ can be used to reconfigure services, e.g., by passing it
   parameters as follows:

   % ./remote_service_directory_test -p 3911 -h localhost -r

   The '-r' flag instructs the server to reconfigure itself.

   After reconfiguration, you'll now have a second active service in
   the address space of the ./server_test daemon.  To see this, rerun
   the remote_service_directory_test command, e.g.:

   % ./remote_service_directory_test -p 3911 -h localhost

   You should now see the following output:

   Svc_Manager 3911/tcp # lists all services in the daemon
   Remote_Brdcast 10001/udp # tests broadcasting

   which indicates that the remote broadcast service is now active.

3. To test the remote broadcast service, run the following program
   in the ./client/ directory:

   % ./broadcast_client_test -p 10001

   This should cause the window running the ./server_test to
   display the following output:

   received broadcast datagram from host spare.ics.uci.edu
   ----------------------------------------
   testing socket broadcast service
   ----------------------------------------

If you want to run other tests, using other configurations, simply
uncomment the appropriate lines in the svc.conf file and experiment
with the corresponding test drivers in the ./client/ directory.  All
the source code is available so once you get the hang of what is
happening, you might want to take a look at how it is all implemented.
You may be surprised at how much of the ACE framework code is
reused for each different service.  Moreover, writing a new service is
often simply a matter of copying an existing file and filling in the
behavior of some of the methods (e.g., the handle_input() method and
the init() method).

