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Revision: 1.73
Committed: Wed Sep 14 07:21:17 2011 UTC (12 years, 8 months ago) by elmex
Branch: MAIN
Changes since 1.72: +1 -1 lines
Log Message:
fixed small typo in AE::MP::Transport.

File Contents

# Content
1 =head1 NAME
2
3 AnyEvent::MP::Transport - actual transport protocol handler
4
5 =head1 SYNOPSIS
6
7 use AnyEvent::MP::Transport;
8
9 =head1 DESCRIPTION
10
11 This module implements (and documents) the actual transport protocol for
12 AEMP.
13
14 See the "PROTOCOL" section below if you want to write another client for
15 this protocol.
16
17 =head1 FUNCTIONS/METHODS
18
19 =over 4
20
21 =cut
22
23 package AnyEvent::MP::Transport;
24
25 use common::sense;
26
27 use Scalar::Util ();
28 use List::Util ();
29 use MIME::Base64 ();
30 use Storable ();
31 use JSON::XS ();
32
33 use Digest::MD6 ();
34 use Digest::HMAC_MD6 ();
35
36 use AE ();
37 use AnyEvent::Socket ();
38 use AnyEvent::Handle 4.92 ();
39
40 use AnyEvent::MP::Config ();
41
42 our $PROTOCOL_VERSION = 1;
43
44 our @HOOK_CONNECT; # called at connect/accept time
45 our @HOOK_GREETING; # called at greeting1 time
46 our @HOOK_CONNECTED; # called at data phase
47 our @HOOK_DESTROY; # called at destroy time
48 our %HOOK_PROTOCOL = (
49 "aemp-dataconn" => sub {
50 require AnyEvent::MP::DataConn;
51 &AnyEvent::MP::DataConn::_inject;
52 },
53 );
54
55 =item $listener = mp_listener $host, $port, <constructor-args>
56
57 Creates a listener on the given host/port using
58 C<AnyEvent::Socket::tcp_server>.
59
60 See C<new>, below, for constructor arguments.
61
62 Defaults for peerhost, peerport and fh are provided.
63
64 =cut
65
66 sub mp_server($$;%) {
67 my ($host, $port, %arg) = @_;
68
69 AnyEvent::Socket::tcp_server $host, $port, sub {
70 my ($fh, $host, $port) = @_;
71
72 my $tp = new AnyEvent::MP::Transport
73 fh => $fh,
74 peerhost => $host,
75 peerport => $port,
76 %arg,
77 ;
78 $tp->{keepalive} = $tp;
79 }, delete $arg{prepare}
80 }
81
82 =item $guard = mp_connect $host, $port, <constructor-args>, $cb->($transport)
83
84 =cut
85
86 sub mp_connect {
87 my $release = pop;
88 my ($host, $port, @args) = @_;
89
90 new AnyEvent::MP::Transport
91 connect => [$host, $port],
92 peerhost => $host,
93 peerport => $port,
94 release => $release,
95 @args,
96 ;
97 }
98
99 =item new AnyEvent::MP::Transport
100
101 # immediately starts negotiation
102 my $transport = new AnyEvent::MP::Transport
103 # mandatory
104 fh => $filehandle,
105 local_id => $identifier,
106 on_recv => sub { receive-callback },
107 on_error => sub { error-callback },
108
109 # optional
110 on_eof => sub { clean-close-callback },
111 on_connect => sub { successful-connect-callback },
112 greeting => { key => value },
113
114 # tls support
115 tls_ctx => AnyEvent::TLS,
116 peername => $peername, # for verification
117 ;
118
119 =cut
120
121 sub new {
122 my ($class, %arg) = @_;
123
124 my $self = bless \%arg, $class;
125
126 {
127 Scalar::Util::weaken (my $self = $self);
128
129 my $config = $AnyEvent::MP::Kernel::CONFIG;
130
131 my $timeout = $config->{monitor_timeout};
132 my $lframing = $config->{framing_format};
133 my $auth_snd = $config->{auth_offer};
134 my $auth_rcv = $config->{auth_accept};
135
136 $self->{secret} = $config->{secret}
137 unless exists $self->{secret};
138
139 my $secret = $self->{secret};
140
141 if (exists $config->{cert}) {
142 $self->{tls_ctx} = {
143 sslv2 => 0,
144 sslv3 => 0,
145 tlsv1 => 1,
146 verify => 1,
147 cert => $config->{cert},
148 ca_cert => $config->{cert},
149 verify_require_client_cert => 1,
150 };
151 }
152
153 $self->{hdl} = new AnyEvent::Handle
154 +($self->{fh} ? (fh => $self->{fh}) : (connect => $self->{connect})),
155 autocork => $config->{autocork},
156 no_delay => exists $config->{nodelay} ? $config->{nodelay} : 1,
157 keepalive => 1,
158 on_error => sub {
159 $self->error ($_[2]);
160 },
161 rtimeout => $timeout,
162 ;
163
164 my $greeting_kv = $self->{local_greeting} ||= {};
165
166 $greeting_kv->{tls} = "1.0" if $self->{tls_ctx};
167 $greeting_kv->{provider} = "AE-$AnyEvent::MP::VERSION"; # MP.pm might not be loaded, so best effort :(
168 $greeting_kv->{peeraddr} = AnyEvent::Socket::format_hostport $self->{peerhost}, $self->{peerport};
169
170 my $protocol = $self->{protocol} || "aemp";
171
172 # can modify greeting_kv
173 $_->($self) for $protocol eq "aemp" ? @HOOK_CONNECT : ();
174
175 # send greeting
176 my $lgreeting1 = "$protocol;$PROTOCOL_VERSION"
177 . ";$AnyEvent::MP::Kernel::NODE"
178 . ";" . (join ",", @$auth_rcv)
179 . ";" . (join ",", @$lframing)
180 . (join "", map ";$_=$greeting_kv->{$_}", keys %$greeting_kv);
181
182 my $lgreeting2 = MIME::Base64::encode_base64 AnyEvent::MP::Kernel::nonce (66), "";
183
184 $self->{hdl}->push_write ("$lgreeting1\012$lgreeting2\012");
185 return unless $self;
186
187 # expect greeting
188 $self->{hdl}->rbuf_max (4 * 1024);
189 $self->{hdl}->push_read (line => sub {
190 my $rgreeting1 = $_[1];
191
192 my ($aemp, $version, $rnode, $auths, $framings, @kv) = split /;/, $rgreeting1;
193
194 $self->{remote_node} = $rnode;
195
196 $self->{remote_greeting} = {
197 map /^([^=]+)(?:=(.*))?/ ? ($1 => $2) : (),
198 @kv
199 };
200
201 # maybe upgrade the protocol
202 if ($protocol eq "aemp" and $aemp =~ /^aemp-\w+$/) {
203 # maybe check for existence of the protocol handler?
204 $self->{protocol} = $protocol = $aemp;
205 }
206
207 $_->($self) for $protocol eq "aemp" ? @HOOK_GREETING : ();
208
209 if ($aemp ne $protocol and $aemp ne "aemp") {
210 return $self->error ("unparsable greeting, expected '$protocol', got '$aemp'");
211 } elsif ($version != $PROTOCOL_VERSION) {
212 return $self->error ("version mismatch (we: $PROTOCOL_VERSION, they: $version)");
213 } elsif ($protocol eq "aemp") {
214 if ($rnode eq $AnyEvent::MP::Kernel::NODE) {
215 return $self->error ("I refuse to talk to myself");
216 } elsif ($AnyEvent::MP::Kernel::NODE{$rnode} && $AnyEvent::MP::Kernel::NODE{$rnode}{transport}) {
217 return $self->error ("$rnode already connected, not connecting again.");
218 }
219 }
220
221 # read nonce
222 $self->{hdl}->push_read (line => sub {
223 my $rgreeting2 = $_[1];
224
225 "$lgreeting1\012$lgreeting2" ne "$rgreeting1\012$rgreeting2" # echo attack?
226 or return $self->error ("authentication error, echo attack?");
227
228 my $tls = $self->{tls_ctx} && 1 == int $self->{remote_greeting}{tls};
229
230 my $s_auth;
231 for my $auth_ (split /,/, $auths) {
232 if (grep $auth_ eq $_, @$auth_snd and ($auth_ !~ /^tls_/ or $tls)) {
233 $s_auth = $auth_;
234 last;
235 }
236 }
237
238 defined $s_auth
239 or return $self->error ("$auths: no common auth type supported");
240
241 my $s_framing;
242 for my $framing_ (split /,/, $framings) {
243 if (grep $framing_ eq $_, @$lframing) {
244 $s_framing = $framing_;
245 last;
246 }
247 }
248
249 defined $s_framing
250 or return $self->error ("$framings: no common framing method supported");
251
252 my $key;
253 my $lauth;
254
255 if ($tls) {
256 $self->{tls} = $lgreeting2 lt $rgreeting2 ? "connect" : "accept";
257 $self->{hdl}->starttls ($self->{tls}, $self->{tls_ctx});
258 return unless $self->{hdl}; # starttls might destruct us
259
260 $lauth =
261 $s_auth eq "tls_anon" ? ""
262 : $s_auth eq "tls_md6_64_256" ? Digest::MD6::md6_hex "$lgreeting1\012$lgreeting2\012$rgreeting1\012$rgreeting2\012"
263 : return $self->error ("$s_auth: fatal, selected unsupported snd auth method");
264
265 } elsif (length $secret) {
266 return $self->error ("$s_auth: fatal, selected unsupported snd auth method")
267 unless $s_auth eq "hmac_md6_64_256"; # hardcoded atm.
268
269 $key = Digest::MD6::md6 $secret;
270 # we currently only support hmac_md6_64_256
271 $lauth = Digest::HMAC_MD6::hmac_md6_hex $key, "$lgreeting1\012$lgreeting2\012$rgreeting1\012$rgreeting2\012", 64, 256;
272
273 } else {
274 return $self->error ("unable to handshake TLS and no shared secret configured");
275 }
276
277 $self->{hdl}->push_write ("$s_auth;$lauth;$s_framing\012");
278 return unless $self;
279
280 # read the authentication response
281 $self->{hdl}->push_read (line => sub {
282 my ($hdl, $rline) = @_;
283
284 my ($auth_method, $rauth2, $r_framing) = split /;/, $rline;
285
286 my $rauth =
287 $auth_method eq "hmac_md6_64_256" ? Digest::HMAC_MD6::hmac_md6_hex $key, "$rgreeting1\012$rgreeting2\012$lgreeting1\012$lgreeting2\012", 64, 256
288 : $auth_method eq "cleartext" ? unpack "H*", $secret
289 : $auth_method eq "tls_anon" ? ($tls ? "" : "\012\012") # \012\012 never matches
290 : $auth_method eq "tls_md6_64_256" ? ($tls ? Digest::MD6::md6_hex "$rgreeting1\012$rgreeting2\012$lgreeting1\012$lgreeting2\012" : "\012\012")
291 : return $self->error ("$auth_method: fatal, selected unsupported rcv auth method");
292
293 if ($rauth2 ne $rauth) {
294 return $self->error ("authentication failure/shared secret mismatch");
295 }
296
297 $self->{s_framing} = $s_framing;
298
299 $hdl->rbuf_max (undef);
300
301 # we rely on TCP retransmit timeouts and keepalives
302 $self->{hdl}->rtimeout (undef);
303
304 $self->{remote_greeting}{untrusted} = 1
305 if $auth_method eq "tls_anon";
306
307 if ($protocol eq "aemp" and $self->{hdl}) {
308 # listener-less node need to continuously probe
309 unless (@$AnyEvent::MP::Kernel::LISTENER) {
310 $self->{hdl}->wtimeout ($timeout);
311 $self->{hdl}->on_wtimeout (sub { $self->{send}->([]) });
312 }
313
314 # receive handling
315
316 my $push_write = $hdl->can ("push_write");
317 my $push_read = $hdl->can ("push_read");
318
319 if ($s_framing eq "json") {
320 $self->{send} = sub {
321 $push_write->($hdl, JSON::XS::encode_json $_[0]);
322 };
323 } else {
324 $self->{send} = sub {
325 $push_write->($hdl, $s_framing => $_[0]);
326 };
327 }
328
329 if ($r_framing eq "json") {
330 my $coder = JSON::XS->new->utf8;
331
332 $hdl->on_read (sub {
333 local $AnyEvent::MP::Kernel::SRCNODE = $self->{node};
334
335 AnyEvent::MP::Kernel::_inject (@$_)
336 for $coder->incr_parse (delete $_[0]{rbuf});
337
338 ()
339 });
340 } else {
341 my $rmsg; $rmsg = $self->{rmsg} = sub {
342 $push_read->($_[0], $r_framing => $rmsg);
343
344 local $AnyEvent::MP::Kernel::SRCNODE = $self->{node};
345 AnyEvent::MP::Kernel::_inject (@{ $_[1] });
346 };
347 eval {
348 $push_read->($_[0], $r_framing => $rmsg);
349 };
350 Scalar::Util::weaken $rmsg;
351 return $self->error ("$r_framing: unusable remote framing")
352 if $@;
353 }
354 }
355
356 $self->connected;
357 });
358 });
359 });
360 }
361
362 $self
363 }
364
365 sub error {
366 my ($self, $msg) = @_;
367
368 delete $self->{keepalive};
369
370 if ($self->{protocol}) {
371 $HOOK_PROTOCOL{$self->{protocol}}->($self, $msg);
372 } else {
373 $AnyEvent::MP::Kernel::WARN->(9, "$self->{peerhost}:$self->{peerport} $msg");#d#
374
375 $self->{node}->transport_error (transport_error => $self->{node}{id}, $msg)
376 if $self->{node} && $self->{node}{transport} == $self;
377 }
378
379 (delete $self->{release})->()
380 if exists $self->{release};
381
382 # $AnyEvent::MP::Kernel::WARN->(7, "$self->{peerhost}:$self->{peerport}: $msg");
383 $self->destroy;
384 }
385
386 sub connected {
387 my ($self) = @_;
388
389 delete $self->{keepalive};
390
391 if ($self->{protocol}) {
392 $self->{hdl}->on_error (undef);
393 $HOOK_PROTOCOL{$self->{protocol}}->($self, undef);
394 } else {
395 $AnyEvent::MP::Kernel::WARN->(9, "$self->{peerhost}:$self->{peerport} connected as $self->{remote_node}");
396
397 my $node = AnyEvent::MP::Kernel::add_node ($self->{remote_node});
398 Scalar::Util::weaken ($self->{node} = $node);
399 $node->transport_connect ($self);
400
401 $_->($self) for @HOOK_CONNECTED;
402 }
403
404 (delete $self->{release})->()
405 if exists $self->{release};
406 }
407
408 sub destroy {
409 my ($self) = @_;
410
411 (delete $self->{release})->()
412 if exists $self->{release};
413
414 $self->{hdl}->destroy
415 if $self->{hdl};
416
417 $_->($self) for $self->{protocol} ? () : @HOOK_DESTROY;
418 }
419
420 sub DESTROY {
421 my ($self) = @_;
422
423 $self->destroy;
424 }
425
426 =back
427
428 =head1 PROTOCOL
429
430 The AEMP protocol is comparatively simple, and consists of three phases
431 which are symmetrical for both sides: greeting (followed by optionally
432 switching to TLS mode), authentication and packet exchange.
433
434 The protocol is designed to allow both full-text and binary streams.
435
436 The greeting consists of two text lines that are ended by either an ASCII
437 CR LF pair, or a single ASCII LF (recommended).
438
439 =head2 GREETING
440
441 All the lines until after authentication must not exceed 4kb in length,
442 including line delimiter. Afterwards there is no limit on the packet size
443 that can be received.
444
445 =head3 First Greeting Line
446
447 Example:
448
449 aemp;0;rain;tls_md6_64_256,hmac_md6_64_256,tls_anon,cleartext;json,storable;timeout=12;peeraddr=10.0.0.1:48082
450
451 The first line contains strings separated (not ended) by C<;>
452 characters. The first five strings are fixed by the protocol, the
453 remaining strings are C<KEY=VALUE> pairs. None of them may contain C<;>
454 characters themselves (when escaping is needed, use C<%3b> to represent
455 C<;> and C<%25> to represent C<%>)-
456
457 The fixed strings are:
458
459 =over 4
460
461 =item protocol identification
462
463 The constant C<aemp> to identify this protocol.
464
465 =item protocol version
466
467 The protocol version supported by this end, currently C<1>. If the
468 versions don't match then no communication is possible. Minor extensions
469 are supposed to be handled through additional key-value pairs.
470
471 =item the node ID
472
473 This is the node ID of the connecting node.
474
475 =item the acceptable authentication methods
476
477 A comma-separated list of authentication methods supported by the
478 node. Note that AnyEvent::MP supports a C<hex_secret> authentication
479 method that accepts a clear-text password (hex-encoded), but will not use
480 this authentication method itself.
481
482 The receiving side should choose the first authentication method it
483 supports.
484
485 =item the acceptable framing formats
486
487 A comma-separated list of packet encoding/framing formats understood. The
488 receiving side should choose the first framing format it supports for
489 sending packets (which might be different from the format it has to accept).
490
491 =back
492
493 The remaining arguments are C<KEY=VALUE> pairs. The following key-value
494 pairs are known at this time:
495
496 =over 4
497
498 =item provider=<module-version>
499
500 The software provider for this implementation. For AnyEvent::MP, this is
501 C<AE-0.0> or whatever version it currently is at.
502
503 =item peeraddr=<host>:<port>
504
505 The peer address (socket address of the other side) as seen locally.
506
507 =item tls=<major>.<minor>
508
509 Indicates that the other side supports TLS (version should be 1.0) and
510 wishes to do a TLS handshake.
511
512 =back
513
514 =head3 Second Greeting Line
515
516 After this greeting line there will be a second line containing a
517 cryptographic nonce, i.e. random data of high quality. To keep the
518 protocol text-only, these are usually 32 base64-encoded octets, but
519 it could be anything that doesn't contain any ASCII CR or ASCII LF
520 characters.
521
522 I<< The two nonces B<must> be different, and an aemp implementation
523 B<must> check and fail when they are identical >>.
524
525 Example of a nonce line (yes, it's random-looking because it is random
526 data):
527
528 2XYhdG7/O6epFa4wuP0ujAEx1rXYWRcOypjUYK7eF6yWAQr7gwIN9m/2+mVvBrTPXz5GJDgfGm9d8QRABAbmAP/s
529
530 =head2 TLS handshake
531
532 I<< If, after the handshake, both sides indicate interest in TLS, then the
533 connection B<must> use TLS, or fail to continue. >>
534
535 Both sides compare their nonces, and the side who sent the lower nonce
536 value ("string" comparison on the raw octet values) becomes the client,
537 and the one with the higher nonce the server.
538
539 =head2 AUTHENTICATION PHASE
540
541 After the greeting is received (and the optional TLS handshake),
542 the authentication phase begins, which consists of sending a single
543 C<;>-separated line with three fixed strings and any number of
544 C<KEY=VALUE> pairs.
545
546 The three fixed strings are:
547
548 =over 4
549
550 =item the authentication method chosen
551
552 This must be one of the methods offered by the other side in the greeting.
553
554 Note that all methods starting with C<tls_> are only valid I<iff> TLS was
555 successfully handshaked (and to be secure the implementation must enforce
556 this).
557
558 The currently supported authentication methods are:
559
560 =over 4
561
562 =item cleartext
563
564 This is simply the shared secret, lowercase-hex-encoded. This method is of
565 course very insecure if TLS is not used (and not completely secure even
566 if TLS is used), which is why this module will accept, but not generate,
567 cleartext auth replies.
568
569 =item hmac_md6_64_256
570
571 This method uses an MD6 HMAC with 64 bit blocksize and 256 bit hash, and
572 requires a shared secret. It is the preferred auth method when a shared
573 secret is available.
574
575 First, the shared secret is hashed with MD6:
576
577 key = MD6 (secret)
578
579 This secret is then used to generate the "local auth reply", by taking
580 the two local greeting lines and the two remote greeting lines (without
581 line endings), appending \012 to all of them, concatenating them and
582 calculating the MD6 HMAC with the key:
583
584 lauth = HMAC_MD6 key, "lgreeting1\012lgreeting2\012rgreeting1\012rgreeting2\012"
585
586 This authentication token is then lowercase-hex-encoded and sent to the
587 other side.
588
589 Then the remote auth reply is generated using the same method, but local
590 and remote greeting lines swapped:
591
592 rauth = HMAC_MD6 key, "rgreeting1\012rgreeting2\012lgreeting1\012lgreeting2\012"
593
594 This is the token that is expected from the other side.
595
596 =item tls_anon
597
598 This type is only valid I<iff> TLS was enabled and the TLS handshake
599 was successful. It has no authentication data, as the server/client
600 certificate was successfully verified.
601
602 This authentication type is somewhat insecure, as it allows a
603 man-in-the-middle attacker to change some of the connection parameters
604 (such as the framing format), although there is no known attack that
605 exploits this in a way that is worse than just denying the service.
606
607 By default, this implementation accepts but never generates this auth
608 reply.
609
610 =item tls_md6_64_256
611
612 This type is only valid I<iff> TLS was enabled and the TLS handshake was
613 successful.
614
615 This authentication type simply calculates:
616
617 lauth = MD6 "rgreeting1\012rgreeting2\012lgreeting1\012lgreeting2\012"
618
619 and lowercase-hex encodes the result and sends it as authentication
620 data. No shared secret is required (authentication is done by TLS). The
621 checksum exists only to make tinkering with the greeting hard.
622
623 =back
624
625 =item the authentication data
626
627 The authentication data itself, usually base64 or hex-encoded data, see
628 above.
629
630 =item the framing protocol chosen
631
632 This must be one of the framing protocols offered by the other side in the
633 greeting. Each side must accept the choice of the other side, and generate
634 packets in the format it chose itself.
635
636 =back
637
638 Example of an authentication reply:
639
640 hmac_md6_64_256;363d5175df38bd9eaddd3f6ca18aa1c0c4aa22f0da245ac638d048398c26b8d3;json
641
642 =head2 DATA PHASE
643
644 After this, packets get exchanged using the chosen framing protocol. It is
645 quite possible that both sides use a different framing protocol.
646
647 =head2 FULL EXAMPLE
648
649 This is an actual protocol dump of a handshake, followed by a single data
650 packet. The greater than/less than lines indicate the direction of the
651 transfer only.
652
653 > aemp;0;anon/57Cs1CggVJjzYaQp13XXg4;tls_md6_64_256,hmac_md6_64_256,tls_anon,cleartext;json,storable;provider=AE-0.8;timeout=12;peeraddr=10.0.0.17:4040
654 > yLgdG1ov/02shVkVQer3wzeuywZK+oraTdEQBmIqWHaegxSGDG4g+HqogLQbvdypFOsoDWJ1Sh4ImV4DMhvUBwTK
655
656 < aemp;0;ruth;tls_md6_64_256,hmac_md6_64_256,tls_anon,cleartext;json,storable;provider=AE-0.8;timeout=12;peeraddr=10.0.0.1:37108
657 < +xMQXP8ElfNmuvEhsmcp+s2wCJOuQAsPxSg3d2Ewhs6gBnJz+ypVdWJ/wAVrXqlIJfLeVS/CBy4gEGkyWHSuVb1L
658
659 > hmac_md6_64_256;5ad913855742ae5a03a5aeb7eafa4c78629de136bed6acd73eea36c9e98df44a;json
660
661 < hmac_md6_64_256;84cd590976f794914c2ca26dac3a207a57a6798b9171289c114de07cf0c20401;json
662 < ["","AnyEvent::MP::_spawn","57Cs1CggVJjzYaQp13XXg4.c","AnyEvent::MP::Global::connect",0,"anon/57Cs1CggVJjzYaQp13XXg4"]
663 ...
664
665 The shared secret in use was C<8ugxrtw6H5tKnfPWfaSr4HGhE8MoJXmzTT1BWq7sLutNcD0IbXprQlZjIbl7MBKoeklG3IEfY9GlJthC0pENzk>.
666
667 =head2 SIMPLE HANDSHAKE FOR NON-PERL NODES
668
669 Implementing the full set of options for handshaking can be a daunting
670 task.
671
672 If security is not so important (because you only connect locally and
673 control the host, a common case), and you want to interface with an AEMP
674 node from another programming language, then you can also implement a
675 simplified handshake.
676
677 For example, in a simple implementation you could decide to simply not
678 check the authenticity of the other side and use cleartext authentication
679 yourself. The the handshake is as simple as sending three lines of text,
680 reading three lines of text, and then you can exchange JSON-formatted
681 messages:
682
683 aemp;1;<nodename>;hmac_md6_64_256;json
684 <nonce>
685 cleartext;<hexencoded secret>;json
686
687 The nodename should be unique within the network, preferably unique with
688 every connection, the <nonce> could be empty or some random data, and the
689 hexencoded secret would be the shared secret, in lowercase hex (e.g. if
690 the secret is "geheim", the hex-encoded version would be "67656865696d").
691
692 Note that apart from the low-level handshake and framing protocol, there
693 is a high-level protocol, e.g. for monitoring, building the mesh or
694 spawning. All these messages are sent to the node port (the empty string)
695 and can safely be ignored if you do not need the relevant functionality.
696
697 =head3 USEFUL HINTS
698
699 Since taking part in the global protocol to find port groups is
700 nontrivial, hardcoding port names should be considered as well, i.e. the
701 non-Perl node could simply listen to messages for a few well-known ports.
702
703 Alternatively, the non-Perl node could call a (already loaded) function
704 in the Perl node by sending it a special message:
705
706 ["", "Some::Function::name", "myownport", 1, 2, 3]
707
708 This would call the function C<Some::Function::name> with the string
709 C<myownport> and some additional arguments.
710
711 =head2 MONITORING
712
713 Monitoring the connection itself is transport-specific. For TCP, all
714 connection monitoring is currently left to TCP retransmit time-outs
715 on a busy link, and TCP keepalive (which should be enabled) for idle
716 connections.
717
718 This is not sufficient for listener-less nodes, however: they need
719 to regularly send data (30 seconds, or the monitoring interval, is
720 recommended), so TCP actively probes.
721
722 Future implementations of AnyEvent::MP::Transport might query the kernel TCP
723 buffer after a write timeout occurs, and if it is non-empty, shut down the
724 connections, but this is an area of future research :)
725
726 =head2 NODE PROTOCOL
727
728 The transport simply transfers messages, but to implement a full node, a
729 special node port must exist that understands a number of requests.
730
731 If you are interested in implementing this, drop us a note so we finish
732 the documentation.
733
734 =head1 SEE ALSO
735
736 L<AnyEvent::MP>.
737
738 =head1 AUTHOR
739
740 Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
741 http://home.schmorp.de/
742
743 =cut
744
745 1
746