---
name: "portmap"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "portmap"
version: "6.0.0-2"
release: "Debian 6.0 (Squeeze)"
platforms: ["linux", "openbsd"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/portmap"
---

# portmap(8)

DARPA port to RPC program number mapper

## NAME

**portmap** – DARPA port to RPC program number mapper

## SYNOPSIS

**portmap** \[**-d**\] \[**-f**\] \[**-t** *dir*\] \[**-v**\] \[**-V**\] \[**-i** *address*\] \[**-l**\] \[**-u** *uid*\] \[**-g** *gid*\]

## 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.

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

**Portmap** records all current mapping in the file **/var/run/portmap\_mapping** so that if it gets killed and restarted, it can reload the mapping for currently active services.

Options available:

- **-V**

  Display version number and exit.

- **-d**

  (debug) prevents **portmap** from running as a daemon, and causes errors and debugging information to be printed to the standard error output.

- **-f**

  (foreground) prevents **portmap** from running as a daemon, and causes log messages to be printed to the standard error output.

- **-t** *dir*

  (chroot) tell **portmap** to [chroot(2)](/chroot/2.md) into *dir*. *dir* should be empty, not writable by the daemon user, and preferably on a filesystem mounted read-only, noexec, nodev, and nosuid.

- **-u** *uid*

  - **-g** *gid*

  Set the user-id and group-id of the running process to those given, rather than the compiled-in defaults of 1/1.

- **-v**

  (verbose) run **portmap** in verbose mode.

- **-i** *address*

  bind **portmap** to address. If you specify 127.0.0.1 it will bind to the loopback interface only.

- **-l**

  bind **portmap** to the loop-back address 127.0.0.1.  This is a shorthand for specifying 127.0.0.1 with -i.

This **portmap** version is protected by the **tcp\_wrapper** library. You have to give the clients access to **portmap** if they should be allowed to use it. To allow connects from clients of the network 192.168. you could use the following line in /etc/hosts.allow:

portmap: 192.168.

In order to avoid deadlocks, the **portmap** program does not attempt to look up the remote host name or user name, nor will it try to match NIS netgroups. As a consequence only network number patterns (or IP addresses) will work for portmap access control, do not use hostnames. Notice that localhost will always be allowed access to the portmapper.

You have to use the daemon name **portmap** for the daemon name (even if the binary has a different name). For the client names you can only use the keyword ALL or IP addresses (NOT host or domain names).

For further information please have a look at the [tcpd(8)](/tcpd/8.md), hosts\_allow(5) and [hosts\_access(5)](/hosts_access/5.md) manual pages.

## SEE ALSO

[inetd.conf(5)](/inetd.conf/5.md), [rpcinfo(8)](/rpcinfo/8.md), [pmap\_set(8)](/pmap_set/8.md), [pmap\_dump(8)](/pmap_dump/8.md), [inetd(8)](/inetd/8.md), [tcpd(8)](/tcpd/8.md), [hosts\_access(5)](/hosts_access/5.md), [hosts\_options(5)](/hosts_options/5.md)

## HISTORY

The **portmap** command appeared in BSD 4.3

## AUTHORS

This manual page was changed by Anibal Monsalve Salazar for the Debian Project.