About This Manual

This manual provides an overview of high-level programming with open network computing remote procedure calls (ONC RPC), describes how to use the rpcgen protocol compiler to create applications, and describes the RPC programming interface. See rpcgen(1) for more information.

Audience

This guide assumes a knowledge of network theory and is for experienced programmers who want to write network applications using open-network computing remote procedure calls (ONC RPC) without needing to know about the underlying network.

Organization

This guide contains three chapters, an appendix, and an index:

Chapter 1	Provides an overview of high-level programming through remote procedure calls (RPC), and discusses the RPC model and versions, external data representation, and RPC independence from network transport protocol. This chapter is for anyone interested in ONC RPC.
Chapter 2	Describes how to write RPC client and server applications with the `rpcgen` protocol compiler. It also provides some information on `rpcgen`, client and server programming, debugging applications, the C preprocessor, and RPC language syntax. This chapter also describes how to create routines for external data representation (XDR). This chapter is for programmers who want to use `rpcgen` to write RPC-based network applications.

Chapter 3	Describes the RPC programming interface layers, XDR serialization defaults, raw RPC, and miscellaneous RPC features. This chapter is for programmers who need to understand RPC mechanisms to write customized network applications.
Appendix A	Contains additional notes on the XDR library. This appendix is for programmers who want to implement RPC and XDR on new machines.

New and Changed Information

The contents of this manual have not changed since the previous release.

Related Documents

The Network Programmer's Guide explains how to write programs that use networking system calls.

The Technical Overview provides general information about addressing, naming, routing, and network protocols and provides a summary of network applications native to Tru64 UNIX.

The Network Administration: Connections manual discusses network connection setup tasks and the day-to-day administration tasks, and explains how to isolate and correct problems with network connections.

The Network Administration: Services manual discusses network services setup tasks and day-to-day administration tasks, and explains how to isolate and correct problems with network services.

Icons on Tru64 UNIX Printed Manuals

The printed version of the Tru64 UNIX documentation uses letter icons on the spines of the manuals to help specific audiences quickly find the manuals that meet their needs. (You can order the printed documentation from Compaq.) The following list describes this convention:

G	Manuals for general users
S	Manuals for system and network administrators
P	Manuals for programmers
R	Manuals for reference page users

Some manuals in the documentation help meet the needs of several audiences. For example, the information in some system manuals is also used by programmers. Keep this in mind when searching for information on specific topics.

The Documentation Overview provides information on all of the manuals in the Tru64 UNIX documentation set.

Reader's Comments

Compaq welcomes any comments and suggestions you have on this and other Tru64 UNIX manuals.

You can send your comments in the following ways:

Fax: 603-884-0120 Attn: UBPG Publications, ZKO3-3/Y32

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The Tru64 UNIX Publications group cannot respond to system problems or technical support inquiries. Please address technical questions to your local system vendor or to the appropriate Compaq technical support office. Information provided with the software media explains how to send problem reports to Compaq.

Conventions

This document uses the following conventions:

% $: A percent sign represents the C shell system prompt. A dollar sign represents the system prompt for the Bourne, Korn, and POSIX shells.
% cat: Boldface type in interactive examples indicates typed user input.
file: Italic (slanted) type indicates variable values, placeholders, and function argument names.
[ | ] { | }: In syntax definitions, brackets indicate items that are optional and braces indicate items that are required. Vertical bars separating items inside brackets or braces indicate that you choose one item from among those listed.
colored text: In syntax definitions, literal elements are colored green. Variable values, placeholders, and function argument names are colored red. No special colored text is used outside of syntax descriptions.
. . .: In syntax definitions, a horizontal ellipsis indicates that the preceding item can be repeated one or more times.
cat(1): A cross-reference to a reference page includes the appropriate section number in parentheses. For example, cat(1) indicates that you can find information on the cat command in Section 1 of the reference pages.