MORE INFORMATION
This article is organized into the following sections:
- Installation
- Documentation
- Before Using RPC
- MIDL Issues
- Run-Time API Issues
Installation
The Windows NT SDK provides the components of the RPC toolkit as part of
its standard installation. No additional installation is required. To
produce MS-DOS and Windows 3.x RPC clients, install version 1.50 of the
Microsoft Visual C/C++ development environment, and then install the MS-
DOS/Win16 RPC tookit from disk. To install the MS-DOS/Windows 3.x version
of the RPC toolkit, use the Setup program in the MSTOOLS\RPC_DOS\DISK1
directory.
Because the 16-bit MIDL compiler is no longer supported, you must develop
applications using the 32-bit MIDL compiler. However, to write MS-DOS or
Windows 3.x applications without a 32-bit C/C++ compiler capable of
targeting MS-DOS, you must compile the IDL file with a 32-bit MIDL compiler
on Windows NT. Then, compile the application and stubs using your C/C++
compiler. To write MS-DOS or Windows 3.x applications using a 32-bit C/C++
compiler that is capable of targeting MS-DOS, compile both the IDL file and
C/C++ files on Windows NT.
Documentation
The RPC Programmer's Guide and Reference is available in Help and includes
conceptual material, MIDL language and command-line references, and
run-time API references.
Because many new features have been included in this version of Microsoft
RPC, see the New in this Version of RPC help topic.
RPC sample program source files are available in the directory
MSTOOLS\SAMPLES\RPC. The MSTOOLS\SAMPLES\RPC\README.TXT file describes each
sample.
Before Using RPC
Read the following section on MIDL and run-time API issues before
attempting to use this version of RPC. These sections contain important
information that is not documented in Help.
MIDL Issues
The 16-bit MIDL compiler for MS-DOS or Windows 3.x is no longer supported.
Use the 32-bit MIDL compiler switch /env with either the DOS or WIN16
option.
Note the following when using this version of the MIDL compiler:
Run-Time API Issues
When using the ncacn_spx and ncadg_ipx transports, the server name is
exactly the same as the Windows NT server name. However, because the names
are distributed using Novell protocols, they must conform to the Novell
naming conventions. If a server name is not a valid Novell name, servers
will not be able to create endpoints with the ncacn_spx or ncadg_ipx
transports. The following is a partial list of characters prohibited in
Novell server names:
" * + . / : ; < = > ? [ ] \ |
When using ncadg_ipx on Windows 3.x or MS-DOS platforms, use the Windows NT
3.1 model of server naming. That is, a tilde, followed by the servers eight-digit network number, followed by its twelve-digit Ethernet address.
The ncacn_spx transport is not supported by the version of NWLink supplied
with MS Client 3.0; however, ncadg_ipx is supported.
Backslashes are now optional in the host name for ncacn_np, for consistency
with the other transports.
The datagram protocols (ncadg_ipx, ncadg_ip_udp) have the following
limitations:
- They do not support callbacks. Any functions using the callback attribute will fail.
- They do not support the RPC security API (RpcBindingSetAuthInfo,
RpcImpersonateClient, and so on).
Only the ncacn_spx and ncacn_ip_tcp protocols support cancels. For all
other protocols, the cancel routines will return RPC_S_OK, but there will
be no effect. Specifically:
- RpcCancelThread will alert the specified thread, but will not interrupt
a pending RPC.
- RpcTestCancel will return RPC_S_OK if the current thread has been
alerted.
- RpcMgmtSetCancelTimeout has no visible effect.
RpcTestCancel, RpcMgmtSetCancelTimeout, and RpcCancelThread are only
supported on Windows NT platforms; all other platforms return
RPC_S_CANNOT_SUPPORT.
The function RpcBindingSetAuthInfo does not accept the value
RPC_C_AUTHN_DEFAULT.
To use the RpcBindingSetAuthInfo routine and, in particular, when using
MS-DOS authentication in this version of RPC, note this information:
- The constant RPC_C_AUTHN_WINNT has been defined in the header RPCDCE.H.
This constant should be passed as the AuthnSvc parameter to use the
Windows NT LAN Manager Security Support Provider (NTLMSSP) service.
- When using the RPC_C_AUTHN_WINNT authentication service, the
AuthIdentity parameter should be a pointer to a SEC_WINNT_AUTH_IDENTITY
structure, defined in RPCDCE.H. This structure contains strings for the
user's domain, username, and password. You can pass a NULL pointer to
use the information for the currently logged-in user.
For MS-DOS, you cannot pass NULL because there is no way for RPC to
determine the current user's logon information. However, either a structure
or NULL is acceptable for Windows versions 3.x and Windows NT.
When using authenticated RPC on a system composed of Novell NetWare and
Windows version 3.x (not Windows for Workgroups), you must run the optional
NETBIOS.EXE program before starting Windows.
The 16-bit SDK cannot be installed on a Windows NT computer unless the
current user is an administrator.
Supported Platforms for Runtime APIs
The following function is supported only by 16-bit Windows 3.x platforms:
The following functions are supported only by 32-bit Windows NT platforms:
DceErrorInqTest
RpcBindingInqAuthClient
RpcBindingServerFromClient
RpcCancelThread
RpcEpRegister
RpcEpUnregister
RpcIfIdVectorFree
RpcImpersonateClient
RpcNetworkInqProtseqs
RpcObjectInqType
RpcObjectSetInqFn
RpcObjectSetType
RpcProtseqVectorFree
RpcRevertToSelf
RpcServerInqBindings
RpcServerInqIf
RpcServerListen
RpcServerRegisterAuthInfo
RpcServerRegisterIf
RpcServerUnregisterIf
RpcServerUse*Protseq*
RpcMgmtInqIfIds
RpcMgmtInqStats
RpcMgmtIsServerListening
RpcMgmtInqServerPrincName
RpcMgmtSetAuthorizationFn
RpcMgmtSetCancelTimeout
RpcMgmtSetServerStackSize
RpcMgmtStatsVectorFree
RpcMgmtStopServerListening
RpcMgmtWaitServerListen
RpcMgmtEnableIdleCleanup
RpcMgmtEpElt*
RpcMgmtEpUnregister
RpcNsBindingExport
RpcNsBindingUnexport
RpcTestCancel
All other runtime functions are supported on Windows NT, Windows 3.x, and
MS-DOS platforms.