1. Introduction

This document specifies the binding protocols used in conjunction with ONC RPC Version 2. As a prerequisite, the reader is expected to be familiar with [1] and [2] which describe the ONC RPC Version 2 and XDR (eXternal Data Representation) protocols.

An RPC service is identified by its RPC program number, version number, and the transport address where it may be reached. The transport address, in turn, consists of a network address and a transport selector. In the case of a service available over TCP/IP or UDP/IP, the network address will be an IP address, and the transport selector will be a TCP or UDP port number. A client program needs to know the RPC program number, version number, and the transport address corresponding to a service in order to utilize the service. Of these, the RPC program number and version number are usually built into the client program, as part of the service definition. The network address component of the transport address is usually available in a name service, or is given as a parameter to the client program. The transport selector (ie., the TCP or UDP port) is usually determined dynamically, and varies with each invocation of the service. Server programs allocate a transport address, and register it with a well-known lookup service (well-known because it uses a fixed transport selector, and resides at the same network address as the server). Client programs consult the lookup service in order to obtain the server's transport address.

Such a lookup service is very desirable because the range of well- known transport selectors is very small for some transports and the number of services is potentially very large. By running only the lookup service on a well-known transport selector, the transport addresses of other remote programs can be ascertained by querying the lookup service.

This document describes three versions of a lookup service, all of which use the same RPC program number (100000). They all use port 111 over TCP and UDP transports. Versions 3 and 4 are described in Section 2 ("RPCBIND Program Protocol"). Version 2 is described in Section 3 ("Port Mapper Program Protocol").

The distinguishing characteristic of RPCBIND (versions 3 and 4) is that this protocol uses a transport-independent format for the transport address, known as the universal address format. An address in universal address format is an ASCII string representation of the transport dependent address. String representation of addresses corresponding to a transport are defined by the addressing authority for the transport. The RPCBIND protocol can be used for binding ONC RPC clients and servers over any transport.

The Port Mapper (version 2), on the other hand, is an older protocol that is specific to TCP and UDP. It handles TCP and UDP ports directly.