The XDR Data Representation

• The representation used by XDR is defined fully in RFC1014.

• XDR assumes that bytes (octets) are portable between architectures.

• The representation of all objects requires a multiple of 4 bytes, numbered 0 to n-1.

• The bytes are read from and written to streams such that byte m precedes byte m+1.

• If the object being represented is not a multiple of 4 bytes in length then the n bytes are followed by enough 0 bytes to make the total byte count a multiple of 4.

• An unfortunate consequence of this is that sending a single character will involve a 75% waste of bandwidth (!).

• The standard, however, defines representations for arrays of characters to minimise this wastage in general use.