Naming and Interface Binding

How does the client-stub know who to call?

Most operating systems now supporting RPCs use a replicated database used to store server addresses.

When a server restarts (boots) it informs the database that it is alive and passes it :

• the program's program number,
• the program's version number, and
• its port number (on that machine).

Thereafter, the first time a client-stub needs to locate a remote procedure it first asks the database server (the portmapper).

The server maps the procedure's name to the network address.

This process is termed binding.