Why portmap installed?

[bswitzer]

Why does kubuntu come out of the box with portmap running?

What is it translating? Why? (It doesn't seem to me that such should be needed, out of the box.)

[claydoh]

Re: Why portmap installed?

It is not installed by default on my dapper install, nor on my Edgy or Feisty either. I know i is needed for nfs and other servers, not sure if something else depends on it.

[penguin.ch]

Re: Why portmap installed?

Why does kubuntu come out of the box with portmap running?

The portmapper is an indispensable pre-requisite to any usage of the network file system (nfs). - If in the context of file transfer you were relying on Samba exclusively (as I'm doing it), you may safely "kill the beast" 8)

[bswitzer]

Re: Why portmap installed?

> It is not installed by default on my dapper install, nor on my Edgy or Feisty either. I know i is needed for nfs and other servers

> The portmapper is an indispensable pre-requisite to any usage of the network file system (nfs).

Thanks to you both, good to know.

But why?

No criticism intended here, but shouldn't things 'play it straight'?

Perhaps something like xinet, in the sense of redirecting well-defined ports to other services for 'non-standard' or more sophisticated handling?

Guess I'd better ask ... where are portmap's configuration files stored? Perhaps finding out what is re-mapped will make things more clear.

[bswitzer]

Re: Why portmap installed?

A little poking around reveals:
- portmap, unlike what the name suggests, does not redirect one tcp/ip port to another, but an RPC port to another (tcp/ip port?)
- the portmap configuration files are empty. i.e. by default there is no redirection from one tcp/ip port to another, so my initial interest is misdirected. Evidently this is a dynamic / as needed redirection - if I don't expose myself, no redirection will occur.
- the portmap description specifically mentions the need for it with the use of NIS/NFS, which I had not picked up on before.

Does this feel consistent and correct?