DACS.SERVICES(8) | DACS Web Services and CGI | DACS.SERVICES(8)

## NAME

dacs.services — DACS web services

## SYNOPSIS

``dacswebservice`` [`dacsoptions`]

## DESCRIPTION

These web services are part of the DACS suite.

The following is a list of DACS web services with a brief description of each. General aspects of DACS and its web services are discussed in dacs(1). Individual web services are discussed in more detail elsewhere. By default, these CGI programs are installed in the `dacs` subdirectory of the Apache `cgi-bin` directory.

By convention, DACS web service names use underscores as word separators. Some web services have command counterparts; their names omit the underscores.

- dacs_admin
  A low-level administration tool for DACS.
  [dacs_admin(8)]

- dacs_auth_agent
  Authenticate by delegating responsibility to a trusted identity.
  [dacs_auth_agent(8)]

- dacs_auth_transfer
  Transfer credentials between federations.
  [dacs_auth_transfer(8)]

- dacs_authenticate
  The DACS authentication service.
  [dacs_authenticate(8)]

- dacs_conf
  Process and display DACS configuration files.
  [dacs_conf(8)]

- dacs_current_credentials
  Display elements of each set of credentials sent with the request.
  [dacs_current_credentials(8)]

- dacs_group
  A DACS group administration tool.
  [dacs.groups(5)]

- dacs_list_jurisdictions
  Display information about all jurisdictions in a federation.
  [dacs_list_jurisdictions(8)]

- dacs_notices
  Notice presentation and acknowledgement handler.
  [dacs_notices(8)]

- dacs_passwd
  Administration tool for passwords used by local_passwd_authenticate.
  [dacs_passwd(8)]

- dacs_signout
  Typically called from a browser, this web services causes one or more
  cookies (each representing a DACS identity) to be deleted.
  Cookies are automatically deleted when a browser terminates, but it
  is sometimes useful to explicitly logoff.
  [dacs_signout(8)]

- dacs_version
  Display version information.
  [dacsversion(8)]

- dacs_vfs
  Manage items in the DACS virtual filestore.
  [dacs_vfs(8)]

- local_*_authenticate
  Authentication modules used by dacs_authenticate(8).
  Each one implements a particular authentication method and optionally
  returns role information.

- local_*_roles
  Roles modules used by dacs_authenticate(8).

### Standard CGI Arguments for DACS Web Services

The following set of CGI arguments are recognized by most DACS web services. When the document for a DACS web service says that it accepts "the standard CGI arguments", it is referring to the following arguments; not all of these arguments are necessarily meaningful to all web services, however.

In general, duplicate CGI argument names are not allowed; i.e., you cannot pass an argument named `DACS_JURISDICTION` more than once when calling a DACS web service, even if each occurrence of the argument has the same value.

`DACS_JURISDICTION`

  This argument is required by most web services. It specifies the name of the jurisdiction to which the request is being sent. Web services will verify that the jurisdiction that receives the request is the same as the intended recipient.

`DACS_VERSION`

  If this argument is present, it specifies the major DACS version number (e.g., `1.4`) expected by the client. The service request will fail if the DACS software does not support this version number. If not provided, no compatibility checks are performed.

`FILE`

  Reserved for future use for file uploading. Requests content type `application/x-dacs-credentials`.

`FORMAT`

  This optional argument requests a particular output format. The default value varies, but it is usually HTML. Not all formats are supported by every web service; refer to the manual page for details. The following values are recognized:

  `HTML`

    Requests content type `text/html`;

  `JSON`

    Requests content type `application/json` (JavaScript Object Notation, see www.json.org and RFC 4627);

  `PHP`

    Used by the dacs_list_jurisdictions(8) web service when its output is to processed by PHP;

  `PLAIN`

    Requests content type `text/plain`;

  `TEXT`

    Like `PLAIN` except that no content type is specified;

  `XML`

    Requests content type `text/xml`. If the DTD_BASE_URL directive is configured, a `DOCTYPE` element with the keyword `SYSTEM` followed by a value derived from DTD_BASE_URL is emitted; e.g.,

        <!DOCTYPE foo SYSTEM "http://fedroot.com/dacs/dtd-xsd/foo.dtd">

    If DTD_BASE_URL is not configured, an internal DTD is emitted. A default `xmlns` attribute is emitted in both cases;

  `XMLDTD`

    Requests content type `text/xml` This emits an internal DTD and default `xmlns` attribute;

  `XMLSCHEMA`

    Requests content type `text/xml`. If the XSD_BASE_URL directive is configured, `xmlns:xsi` and `xsi:schemaLocation` attributes are emitted, the former having a compile-time value (e.g., "`http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance`") and the latter being a pair, the first having the same value as the value of the `xmlns` attribute and the second having a value derived from XSD_BASE_URL; e.g.,

        <foo xmlns="http://fedroot.com/dacs/v1.4"
            xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
            xsi:schemaLocation="http://fedroot.com/dacs/v1.4
            http://amd.dss.bc.ca/dacs/dtd-xsd/foo.xsd">

    The default `xmlns` attribute is also emitted. If XSD_BASE_URL is not configured, only the default `xmlns` attribute is emitted; and

  `XMLSIMPLE`

    Requests content type `text/xml` Neither a DTD (no `DOCTYPE`) nor a default `xmlns` attribute is emitted.

  Also see the `-format` command line flag (one of the dacsoptions).

## DIAGNOSTICS

Programs usually exit `0` if everything was fine, `1` if an error occurred.

## AUTHOR

Distributed Systems Software (www.dss.ca)

## COPYING

Copyright © 2003-2012 Distributed Systems Software. See the `LICENSE` file that accompanies the distribution for licensing information.

DACS Version 1.4.28b | 1-Mar-2013 | DACS.SERVICES(8)

Table of Contents

Font:

- Z
- Z
- Z
- Z

−−

Set

++

$Id: dacs.services.8.xml 2563 2012-02-07 22:40:41Z brachman $