from
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
Remote Procedure Call
RPC
<networking, programming> (RPC) A {protocol} which allows a
program running on one {host} to cause code to be executed on
another host without the programmer needing to explicitly code
for this. RPC is an easy and popular paradigm for
implementing the {client-server} model of {distributed
computing}. An RPC is initiated by the caller (client)
sending request message to a remote system (the server) to
execute a certain procedure using arguments supplied. A
result message is returned to the caller. There are many
variations and subtleties in various implementations,
resulting in a variety of different (incompatible) RPC
{protocols}.
{Sun} RPC is defined in {RFC 1057} and {ONC} RPC in {RFC
1831}.
(2003-06-04)