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Encode and decode XDR data.</TITLE>
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<H1><A NAME="SECTION00141200000000000000000">
12.12 <tt class=module>xdrlib</tt> --
         Encode and decode XDR data.</A>
</H1>

<P>

<P>
<a name="l2h-2057"></a>
<a name="l2h-2058"></a>

<P>
The <tt class=module>xdrlib</tt> module supports the External Data Representation
Standard as described in <span class=rfc><a name="rfcref-42839"
href="http://info.internet.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc/files/rfc1014.txt">RFC 1014</a></span>, written by Sun Microsystems,
Inc. June 1987.  It supports most of the data types described in the
RFC.

<P>
The <tt class=module>xdrlib</tt> module defines two classes, one for packing
variables into XDR representation, and another for unpacking from XDR
representation.  There are also two exception classes.

<P>
<dl><dt><b><a name="l2h-2055"><tt class=class>Packer</tt></a></b> ()
<dd>
<tt class=class>Packer</tt> is the class for packing data into XDR representation.
The <tt class=class>Packer</tt> class is instantiated with no arguments.
</dl>

<P>
<dl><dt><b><a name="l2h-2056"><tt class=class>Unpacker</tt></a></b> (<var>data</var>)
<dd>
<tt>Unpacker</tt> is the complementary class which unpacks XDR data
values from a string buffer.  The input buffer is given as
<var>data</var>.
</dl>

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