[OpenAFS-devel] GSoC 2026 - Question about "netcat for Rx" project

[Shayan Siddique]

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Hello OpenAFS developers,

My name is Shayan and I=E2=80=99m a first-year computer science student
interested in applying to OpenAFS for Google Summer of Code 2026.

The =E2=80=9Cnetcat for Rx=E2=80=9D project caught my attention because I=
=E2=80=99m interested
in systems programming and network protocols in C. I have written a
LAN file sharing tool in C that uses UDP broadcast for peer discovery
and TCP for reliable file transfer, as well as some other small systems
projects.

I=E2=80=99ve started looking into the Rx protocol used by OpenAFS and my
understanding is that this project would involve building a CLI tool
similar to netcat that wraps the Rx client APIs to establish
connections, send data to Rx services, and display responses.

I wanted to ask if there are particular parts of the Rx codebase or
documentation that would be good starting points for understanding how
a tool like this should interact with Rx services.

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
Shayan

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<div dir=3D"ltr">Hello OpenAFS developers,<br><br>My name is Shayan and I=
=E2=80=99m a first-year computer science student<br>interested in applying =
to OpenAFS for Google Summer of Code 2026.<br><br>The =E2=80=9Cnetcat for R=
x=E2=80=9D project caught my attention because I=E2=80=99m interested<br>in=
 systems programming and network protocols in C. I have written a<br>LAN fi=
le sharing tool in C that uses UDP broadcast for peer discovery<br>and TCP =
for reliable file transfer, as well as some other small systems<br>projects=
.<br><br>I=E2=80=99ve started looking into the Rx protocol used by OpenAFS =
and my<br>understanding is that this project would involve building a CLI t=
ool<br>similar to netcat that wraps the Rx client APIs to establish<br>conn=
ections, send data to Rx services, and display responses.<br><br>I wanted t=
o ask if there are particular parts of the Rx codebase or<br>documentation =
that would be good starting points for understanding how<br>a tool like thi=
s should interact with Rx services.<br><br>Any guidance would be greatly ap=
preciated.<br><br>Thank you,<br>Shayan<br><br></div>

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