Editing Sun RPC (section)

{{Short description|Computer network protocol}}
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'''Open Network Computing''' ('''ONC''') '''Remote Procedure Call''' ('''RPC'''), commonly known as '''Sun RPC''' is a [[remote procedure call]] system. ONC was originally developed by [[Sun Microsystems]] in the 1980s as part of their [[Network File System (protocol)|Network File System]] project.

ONC is based on [[calling convention]]s used in [[Unix]] and the [[C (programming language)|C programming language]]. It [[serialization|serializes]] data using the [[External Data Representation]] (XDR), which has also found some use to encode and decode data in files that are to be accessed on more than one platform. ONC then delivers the XDR payload using either [[User Datagram Protocol|UDP]] or [[Transmission Control Protocol|TCP]]. Access to RPC services on a machine are provided via a ''[[port mapper]]'' that listens for queries on a [[List of TCP and UDP port numbers#Well-known_ports|well-known port]] (number 111) over UDP and TCP.

ONC RPC version 2 was first described in {{IETF RFC|1050}}<ref name=rfc1050>{{cite web|title=RFC 1050 section 8|date=April 1988 |url=https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc1050#section-8|quote=rpcvers must be equal to 2}}</ref> published in April 1988. In June 1988 it was updated by {{IETF RFC|1057}}. Later it was updated by {{IETF RFC|1831}}, published in August 1995. {{IETF RFC|5531}}, published in May 2009, is the current version. All these documents describe only version 2 and version 1 was not covered by any RFC document. Authentication mechanisms used by ONC RPC are described in RFC 2695, RFC 2203, and RFC 2623.

Implementations of ONC RPC exist in most [[Unix-like]] systems. [[Microsoft]] supplied an implementation for [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]] in their (now discontinued) [[Microsoft Windows Services for UNIX]] product; in addition, a number of third-party implementation of ONC RPC for Windows exist, including versions for [[C (programming language)|C]]/[[C++]], [[Java (programming language)|Java]], and [[Microsoft .NET|.NET]] (see external links).

In 2009, Sun [[Software relicensing|relicensed]] the ONC RPC code under the standard 3-clause [[BSD license]],<ref>{{cite web |last1=Phipps |first1=Simon |url=https://blogs.oracle.com/webmink/entry/old_code_and_old_licenses |title=Old Code and Old Licenses |date=2009-02-12 |access-date=2012-12-21 |publisher=[[Sun Microsystems]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130223021412/https://blogs.oracle.com/webmink/entry/old_code_and_old_licenses |archive-date=2013-02-23 |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref> which was reconfirmed by [[Oracle Corporation]] in 2010 following confusion about the scope of the relicensing.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://spot.livejournal.com/315383.html | title = The long, sordid tale of Sun RPC, abbreviated somewhat, to protect the guilty and the irresponsible | access-date = 2010-08-26 | publisher = Tom Callaway, [[Red Hat]] }}</ref>