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=head1 NAME

Arc - Authenticated Remote Control v2

=head1 DESCRIPTION

ARC allows non-privileged users to run privileged commands on the server.
The server decides if the user is allowed to run this command through ACL.

This file is a part of the Perl ARCv2 module suite. ARCv2 is a 
rewrite of ARC by R.Toebbicke, CERN, Switzerland in Perl. 

=head1 ABSTRACT

From ARC by R. Toebbicke, modified by me:
User requests are shipped from a client machine to a server using a
SASL-authenticated socket connection. The purpose is to convey
requests such as privileged commands (e.g. AFS, Crontab) to be executed on the
server under appropriate privileges. Given that all privileges are
confined to the server and the server can be programmed as to filter and
check the command to be executed, the client machine can be less trusted
than the server.

Because ARC-v1-Commands are written in perl anyway, implementing the client/server
in perl makes sense. Platform-independence and "easy-to-read" source code are welcome
too. This package provides two perl command line scripts (arcx, arcxd). They can
be used for working with the ARC server from the command line, resp. to start the
server.

=head1 SYNOPSIS

This is a abstract (known from c++) class. 
This is the base class which defines the namespace for 
the ARCv2 module suite.


=head1 Class VARIABLES

=head3 PUBLIC MEMBERS

=over 2

=item logdestination 

B<Description>: Where should all the log output go to ('stderr','syslog')

B<Default value>: 'syslog'

=item logfileprefix 

B<Description>: Prepended to every log entry

B<Default value>: ""

=item loglevel 

B<Description>: loglevel is combination of bits (1=AUTH,2=USER,4=ERR,8=CMDDEBUG,16=VERBSIDE,32=DEBUG) see _Log method

B<Default value>: 7

=back 

=over 2

=back 

=head3 PROTECTED MEMBERS

=over 2

=item _error 

B<Description>: contains the error message

B<Default value>: undef

=item _syslog 

B<Description>: log to syslog or to STDERR

B<Default value>: 1

=back 

=over 2

=back 

=head3 PRIVATE MEMBERS

=head1 Class METHODS

=head3 PUBLIC METHODS

=over 2

=item DESTROY (  ) 

B<Description>: Destructor


=item IsError (  ) 

B<Description>: User function to get the error msg.


B<Returns:> the error message if any otherwise undef


B<Example:>

unless (my $err = $arc->IsError()) { .. } else { print STDERR $err; }


=item Log ( $facility, ... (message) ) 

B<Description>: Log function.
Logs messages to 'logdestination' if 'loglevel' is is set appropriatly.
loglevel behaviour has changed in the 1.0 release of ARCv2, the "Arc"-class can export
LOG_AUTH (authentication information), LOG_USER (connection information), LOG_ERR (errors), 
LOG_CMD (ARCv2 addition internal command information), LOG_SIDE (verbose client/server-specific
information), LOG_DEBUG (verbose debug information). It possible to combine the 
levels with or (resp. +) to allow a message to appear when not all loglevels are 
requested by the user.
Commonly used for logging errors from application level.


B<Returns:> always false


B<Example:>

return $arc->Log(LOG_ERR,"Message");


=item new ( %hash, key => val, ... ) 

B<Description>: Constructor. 
Initializes the object and returns it blessed.
For all sub classes, please override C<_Init> to check the 
parameter which are passed to the C<new> function. This
is necessary because you are not able to call the the new method of a
parent class, when having a class name (new $class::SUPER::new, does not work.).


B<Returns:> blessed object of the class


B<Example:>

my $this = new Arc::Class ( key => value, key2 => value2 );


=back 

=over 2

=back 

=head3 PROTECTED METHODS

=over 2

=item _Debug ( ... (message) ) 

B<Description>: Debug function.
Logs messages with "DEBUG" 


B<Returns:> always false


B<Example:>

$this->_Debug("hello","world"); # message will be "hello world"


=item _Init ( %hash, key => val, ... ) 

B<Description>: Init function (initializes class context)
Module dependent initialization, every subclass shall override it