server

1. A program which provides some service to other (client)

programs. The connection between client and server is

normally by means of message passing, often over a network,

and uses some protocol to encode the client's requests and

the server's responses. The server may run continuously (as a

daemon), waiting for requests to arrive or it may be invoked

by some higher level daemon which controls a number of

specific servers (inetd on Unix). There are many servers

associated with the Internet, such as those for Network FileSystem, Network Information Service (NIS), Domain NameSystem (DNS), FTP, news, finger, Network TimeProtocol. On Unix, a long list can be found in /etc/services

or in the NIS database "services". See client-server.

2. A computer which provides some service for other computers

connected to it via a network. The most common example is a

file server which has a local disk and services requests

from remote clients to read and write files on that disk,

often using Sun's Network File System (NFS) protocol or

Novell Netware on IBM PCs.

[Jargon File]

(1996-09-08)