rpcbind(8) System Manager's Manual rpcbind(8)

rpcbind — portmap

rpcbind [-d] [-v] [-h bindip]

Rpcbind is a server that converts RPC program numbers into DARPA protocol port numbers. It is a replacement for the older portmap program.

rpcbind supports the original version 2 portmap protocol and in addition supports the newer version 3 and version 4 protocols that are necessary for IPv6 support. It must be running on the server in order to make RPC calls.

When an RPC server is started, it will tell rpcbind what address it is listening to, and what RPC program numbers it is prepared to serve. When a client wishes to make an RPC call to a given program number, it will first contact rpcbind on the server machine to determine the address where RPC packets should be sent.

rpcbind is a launchd service. When the first server tries to register with rpcbind the RPC library will contact launchd and arrange for rpcbind to be started. Note it is no longer possible to run rpcbind from the command line. rpcbind logs errors and information using os_log(3). rpcbind uses hosts_access(5) for access control; note access control patterns may only reference IP addresses.

The following options are available and will need to be added to the rpcbind plist file.

causes rpcbind errors and debugging information to be printed to the standard error output via os_log. This option is no longer very useful.
Enable verbose logging of access control checks.
Specify specific IP addresses to bind to for UDP requests. This option may be specified multiple times and is typically necessary when running on a multi-homed host. If no -h option is specified, rpcbind will bind to INADDR_ANY, which could lead to problems on a multi-homed host due to rpcbind returning a UDP packet from a different IP address than it was sent to. Note that when specifying IP addresses with -h, rpcbind will automatically add 127.0.0.1 to the list.

/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.rpcbind.plist
launchd.plist(5) file for rpcbind. Options should be added here.
/usr/share/sandbox/rpcbind.sb
sandbox(7) file for rpcbind.

hosts_access(5), launchd.plist(5), launchd(8), rpcinfo(8)

1/24/11 Darwin