UNIFUNC(3)

NAME
libngatm, uni_decode, uni_decode_head, uni_decode_body, uni_decode_ie_hdr, uni_decode_ie_body, uni_encode, uni_encode_msg_hdr, uni_encode_ie, uni_encode_ie_hdr, uni_check_ie, uni_print_cref, uni_print_msghdr, uni_print, uni_print_ie, uni_initcx, uni_print_cx - ATM signalling library - message handling functions

LIBRARY
Begemot ATM signalling library (libngatm, -lngatm)

SYNOPSIS
#include <netnatm/msg/unistruct.h>
#include <netnatm/msg/unimsglib.h>
int
uni_decode(struct uni_msg *buf, struct uni_all *msg, struct unicx *cx);
int
uni_decode_head(struct uni_msg *buf, struct uni_all *msg, struct unicx *cx);
int
uni_decode_body(struct uni_msg *buf, struct uni_all *msg, struct unicx *cx);
int
uni_decode_ie_hdr(enum uni_ietype *type, struct uni_iehdr *hdr, struct uni_msg *buf, struct unicx *cx, u_int *ielen);
int
uni_decode_ie_body(enum uni_ietype type, union uni_ieall *ie, struct uni_msg *buf, u_int ielen, struct unicx *cx);
int
uni_encode(struct uni_msg *buf, struct uni_all *msg, struct unicx *cx);
int
uni_encode_msg_hdr(struct uni_msg *buf, struct uni_msghdr *hdr, enum uni_msgtype type, struct unicx *cx, int *mlen);
int
uni_encode_ie(enum uni_ietype type, struct uni_msg *buf, union uni_ieall *ie, struct unicx *cx);
int
uni_encode_ie_hdr(struct uni_msg *buf, enum uni_ietype type, struct uni_iehdr *hdr, u_int len, struct unicx *cx);
int
uni_check_ie(enum uni_ietype type, union uni_ieall *ie, struct unicx *cx);
void
uni_print_cref(char *buf, size_t buflen, struct uni_cref *cref, struct unicx *cx);
void
uni_print_msghdr(char *buf, size_t buflen, struct uni_msghdr *hdr, struct unicx *cx);
void
uni_print(char *buf, size_t buflen, struct uni_all *msg, struct unicx *cx);
void
uni_print_ie(char *buf, size_t buflen, enum uni_ietype type, union uni_ieall *ie, struct unicx *cx);
void
uni_initcx(struct unicx *cx);
void
uni_print_cx(char *buf, size_t buflen, struct unicx *cx);

DESCRIPTION
The libngatm library handles UNI 4.0 messages. For each information element and message type the header files contain a structure definition. Additionally there are a number of help structures and a global context structure for some of the library functions. This document describes the functions that are used to handle messages.

  DECODING
Decoding is the process of taking an octet stream containing a UNI message or IE, parsing it and filling in a message or IE structure.

The function uni_decode() takes a message buffer, interprets it as a UNI message and fills in the structure pointed to by msg. It also takes a context argument and may fill the error array in the context. It returns -1 if there is an error decoding the message header and -2 if there is an error decoding the message body. The function returns 0 on success.

The process of decoding a message can be split up by calling uni_decode_head() and uni_decode_body(). The first of these functions decodes only the message header and the second one decodes only the information elements. uni_decode_head() returns 0 if it could decode the message header and -1 if the message could not be decoded (bad protocol identifier, bad length or broken call reference). uni_decode_body() return 0 on success and -1 for unknown message types or if any IE had an error.

The function uni_decode_ie_hdr() decodes the next information element header. It returns the IE type and its length in the variables pointed to by type and ielen and stores the decoded header in the structure pointed to by hdr. The function returns 0 on success and -1 if there were not enough bytes in the buffer left for a complete IE header.

The function uni_decode_ie_body() decodes the body of an information element. It is passed the buffer with the message buf, the information element type type and length ielen. The IE is stored in the union pointed to by ie. The function returns -1 on errors and 0 on success. In any case the most correct number of bytes is consumed from the input buffer.

  ENCODING
Encoding is the process of taking a message or IE structure and producing an octet stream from it.

The function uni_encode() encodes a UNI message. It returns -1 if the message type is out of bounds, -3 if the message type is unknown. The encoding functions for the message types can return their own error codes. The function returns 0 on success.

The function uni_encode_msg_hdr() encodes a message header. The variable pointed to by mlen is set to the offset of the message length field from the begin of the byte stream. This is needed because the length of the message body will be known only after all the IEs have been encoded. Then the length has to be inserted into this place. The function returns -1 if the call reference was bad and 0 on success.

The function uni_encode_ie() encodes one information element. The function returns 0 on success or -1 on errors. The function uni_encode_ie_hdr() encodes the four byte IE header. The argument len is the maximum expected length of the information element, not the real length. The function inserts a 0 in the real length field. This must be fixed up by the caller after encoding the IE contents. The function return -1 if an empty IE is to be encoded (in this case the length field will have been set to 4) or 0 otherwise.

  CHECKING
There exists a number of function that do consistency checks on information elements. Note, that these functions do not check inter-IE consistency, but each IE by itself.

The function uni_check_ie() check an information element for consistency. It returns 0 if the IE seems ok, -1 otherwise.

  PRINTING
A number of functions can be used to print decoded messages and IEs in a human readable form. This is intended mainly for debugging. Some fields of the library context are used to control how the printing is done (see unistruct(3)). Each of the function takes a buf and a buflen argument. The string that is generated in the buffer pointed to by buf is guaranteed to be NUL terminated.

The function uni_print_cref() formats a call reference taking into account special call references. The function uni_print_msg_hdr() formats a message header. The functions uni_print() and uni_print_ie() print messages and information elements.

  CONTEXTS
There are two functions for context handling. uni_initcx() initializes a context with default values and uni_print_cx() prints a context to the given buffer.

SEE ALSO
libngatm(3)

STANDARDS
This implementation conforms to the applicable ITU-T recommendations and ATM Forum standards with the exception of some limitations (see the Configuration section).

AUTHORS
Hartmut Brandt <harti@FreeBSD.org>