broadcast

[[ [ IDL-operation-attributes ] ]] operation-attribute , ...

IDL-operation-attributes

Specifies zero or more IDL operation attributes, such as broadcast and idempotent. Operation attributes are enclosed in square brackets.

Remarks

The keyword broadcast specifies that remote procedure calls be sent to all servers on a local network. Rather than being delivered to one particular server, the routine is always broadcasted to all the servers on the network. The client receives output from the first reply to return successfully, while subsequent replies are discarded.

The broadcast attribute specifies that the routine can be called multiple times and at the same time be sent to multiple servers as the result of one RPC. This is different from the idempotent attribute, which specifies that a call can be retried if it is not completed. However, an operation with the broadcast attribute is implicitly an idempotent operation. It ensures that the data for an RPC is received and processed zero or more times.

The broadcast attribute is supported only by connectionless protocols (datagrams). If a remote procedure broadcasts its call to all hosts on a local network, it must use the datagram protocol sequence ncadg_ip_udp. Note that the size of a broadcast packet is determined by the datagram service in use.

See Also