DESCRIPTION

     Portmap is a server that converts RPC program numbers into DARPA protocol
     port numbers.  It must be running in order to make RPC calls.

     When an RPC server is started, it will tell portmap what port number 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 portmap on the server machine to determine the port
     number where RPC packets should be sent.

     Portmap must be started before any RPC servers are invoked.

     Portmap uses hosts_access(5) access control by default.  Access control
     patterns may only reference IP addresses.

     Normally portmap forks and dissociates itself from the terminal like any
     other daemon.  Portmap then logs errors using syslog(3).

     The following options are available:

     -d      Prevent portmap from running as a daemon, and causes errors and
             debugging information to be printed to the standard error output.

     -v      Enable verbose logging of access control checks.

     -h      Specify specific ip addresses to bind to for UDP requests.  This
             option may be specified multiple times and is typically necessary
             when running portmap on a multi-homed host.  If no -h option is
             specified, portmap will bind to INADDR_ANY, which could lead to
             problems on a multi-homed host due to portmap returning a udp
             packet from a different IP address then it was sent to.  Note
             that when specifying ip addresses with -h, portmap will automati-
             cally add 127.0.0.1 to the list so you don't have to.

SEE ALSO

     hosts_access(5), inetd.conf(5), inetd(8), rpcinfo(8)

BUGS

     If portmap crashes, all servers must be restarted.

HISTORY

     The portmap command appeared in 4.3BSD

4.3 Berkeley Distribution        June 6, 1993        4.3 Berkeley Distribution