rlogin establishes a remote login session from your terminal to the remote machine named hostname.

Hostnames are listed in the hosts database, which may be contained in the /etc/hosts and /etc/inet/ipnodes files, the Network Information Service (NIS) hosts map, the Internet domain name server, or a combination of these. Each host has one official name (the first name in the database entry), and optionally one or more nicknames. Either official hostnames or nicknames may be specified in hostname.

Each remote machine may have a file named /etc/hosts.equiv containing a list of trusted hostnames with which it shares usernames. Users with the same username on both the local and remote machine may rlogin from the machines listed in the remote machine's /etc/hosts.equiv file without supplying a password. Individual users may set up a similar private equivalence list with the file .rhosts in their home directories. Each line in this file contains two names: a hostname and a username separated by a space. An entry in a remote user's .rhosts file permits the user named username who is logged into hostname to log in to the remote machine as the remote user without supplying a password. If the name of the local host is not found in the /etc/hosts.equiv file on the remote machine, and the local username and hostname are not found in the remote user's .rhosts file, then the remote machine will prompt for a password. Hostnames listed in /etc/hosts.equiv and .rhosts files must be the official hostnames listed in the hosts database; nicknames may not be used in either of these files.

For security reasons, the .rhosts file must be owned by either the remote user or by root.

The remote terminal type is the same as your local terminal type (as given in your environment TERM variable). The terminal or window size is also copied to the remote system if the server supports the option, and changes in size are reflected as well. All echoing takes place at the remote site, so that (except for delays) the remote login is transparent. Flow control using CTRL-S and CTRL-Q and flushing of input and output on interrupts are handled properly.

The following options are supported:

-8

Pass eight-bit data across the net instead of seven-bit data.

-ec

Specify a different escape character, c, for the line used to disconnect from the remote host.

-E

Stop any character from being recognized as an escape character.

-l username

Specify a different username for the remote login. If you do not use this option, the remote username used is the same as your local username.

-L

Allow the rlogin session to be run in "litout" mode.

Escape Sequences

hostname

The remote machine on which rlogin establishes the remote login session.

/etc/passwd

contains information about users' accounts

/usr/hosts/*

for hostname version of the command

/etc/hosts.equiv

list of trusted hostnames with shared usernames

/etc/nologin

message displayed to users attempting to login during machine shutdown

$HOME/.rhosts

private list of trusted hostname/username combinations

/etc/hosts

hosts database

/etc/inet/ipnodes

hosts database

See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

rsh(1), stty(1), tty(1), in.named(1M), hosts(4),ipnodes(4). hosts.equiv(4), nologin(4), attributes(5)

The following message indicates that the machine is in the process of being shutdown and logins have been disabled:

NO LOGINS: System going down in N minutes

When a system is listed in hosts.equiv, its security must be as good as local security. One insecure system listed in hosts.equiv can compromise the security of the entire system.

The Network Information Service (NIS) was formerly known as Sun Yellow Pages (YP.) The functionality of the two remains the same; only the name has changed.

This implementation can only use the TCP network service.