XDR/RPC protocol specification
XDR is a standard for the description and encoding of data.
The XDR protocol is useful for transferring data between different computer
architectures and has been used to communicate data between such
diverse machines as the 3B2, Sun Workstation®,
VAX
, IBM-PC, and Cray®.
XDR fits into the ISO presentation layer and is roughly analogous in
purpose to X.409, ISO Abstract Syntax Notation.
The major difference
between the two is that XDR uses implicit typing, while X.409 uses
explicit typing.
XDR uses a language to describe data formats and can
only be used to describe data; it is not a programming language.
This language makes it possible to describe intricate data formats in a
concise manner.
The XDR language is similar to the C language.
Protocols such as RPC (Remote Procedure Call) and the NFS
(Network File System®) use XDR to describe the format of their data.
© 2004 The SCO Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
UnixWare 7 Release 7.1.4 - 27 April 2004