RPC Message Protocol

This section explains the RPC message protocol.

The Remote Procedure Call (RPC) message protocol consists of two distinct structures: the call message and the reply message (see RPC Call Message and RPC Reply Message). A client makes a remote procedure call to a network server and receives a reply containing the results of the procedure's execution. By providing a unique specification for the remote procedure, RPC can match a reply message to each call (or request) message.

The RPC message protocol is defined using the eXternal Data Representation (XDR) data description, which includes structures, enumerations, and unions. See RPC Language Descriptions for more information.

When RPC messages are passed using the TCP/IP byte-stream protocol for data transport, it is important to identify the end of one message and the start of the next one.