.TH 9PSERVE 4
.SH NAME
9pserve \- announce and multiplex 9P service
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B 9pserve
[
.B -v
]
.I addr
.SH DESCRIPTION
On Plan 9, when a user-level file server mounts itself into a name space
or posts itself in 
.BR /srv ,
the Plan 9 kernel multiplexes the potentially many processes 
accessing the server into a single 9P conversation.
The user-level server need not concern itself with how many
processes are accessing it or with cleaning up after a process when it
exits unexpectedly.
On Unix,
.I 9pserve
takes the place of the Plan 9 kernel, multiplexing clients onto
a single server conversation and cleaning up after clients when
they hang up unexpectedly.
.PP
.I 9pserve
announces a 9P service on
.I addr
and multiplexes any 9P clients connecting to
.I addr
into a single conversation with a 9P server on
.IR 9pserve 's
standard input and output.
When a client hangs up, 
.I 9pserve
flushes any outstanding 9P transactions 
and clunks any outstanding fids belonging to the client.
.PP
.I 9pserve
is typically not invoked directly; use
.IR post9pservice (3)
instead.
.SH "SEE ALSO
.IR intro (4),
.IR intro (9p)
.SH SOURCE
.B \*9/src/cmd/9pserve.c