RFC 1057 (rfc1057) - Page 1 of 25

RPC: Remote Procedure Call Protocol specification: Version 2

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Network Working Group                             Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Request For Comments: 1057                                     June 1988
Obsoletes: RFC 1050


                       RPC: Remote Procedure Call
                         Protocol Specification
                               Version 2

STATUS OF THIS MEMO

   This RFC describes a standard that Sun Microsystems and others are
   using, and is one we wish to propose for the Internet's
   consideration.  This memo is not an Internet standard at this time.
   Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

1. INTRODUCTION

   This document specifies version two of the message protocol used in
   Sun's Remote Procedure Call (RPC) package.  The message protocol is
   specified with the eXternal Data Representation (XDR) language [9].
   This document assumes that the reader is familiar with XDR.  It does
   not attempt to justify remote procedure calls systems or describe
   their use.  The paper by Birrell and Nelson [1] is recommended as an
   excellent background for the remote procedure call concept.

2. TERMINOLOGY

   This document discusses clients, calls, servers, replies, services,
   programs, procedures, and versions.  Each remote procedure call has
   two sides: an active client side that sends the call to a server,
   which sends back a reply.  A network service is a collection of one
   or more remote programs.  A remote program implements one or more
   remote procedures; the procedures, their parameters, and results are
   documented in the specific program's protocol specification (see
   Appendix A for an example).  A server may support more than one
   version of a remote program in order to be compatible with changing
   protocols.

   For example, a network file service may be composed of two programs.
   One program may deal with high-level applications such as file system
   access control and locking.  The other may deal with low-level file
   input and output and have procedures like "read" and "write".  A
   client of the network file service would call the procedures
   associated with the two programs of the service on behalf of the
   client.

   The terms client and server only apply to a particular transaction; a



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