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Bootstrap Protocol RFC ( Request for Comments ) 951, September 1985. This RFC describes an IP/UDP bootstrap protocol ( BOOTP ) which allows a diskless client machine to discover its own IP address, the address of a server host, and the name of a file to be loaded into memory and executed. Today, the bootstrap protocol is used in conjunction with the recent DHCP ( Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol ) protocol to perform the same tasks in a better way. A single packet exchange is performed. Timeouts are used to retransmit until a reply is received. An 'opcode' field exists with two values. The client broadcasts a 'bootrequest' packet. The server then answers with a 'bootreply' packet. The bootrequest contains the client's hardware address and its IP address, if known. The request can optionally contain the name of the server the client wishes to respond. This is so the client can force the boot to occur from a specific host. The request can optionally contain the 'generic' filename to be booted. For example 'unix' or 'ethertip'. When the server sends the bootreply, it replaces this field with the fully qualified path name of the appropriate boot file. In the case of clients who do not know their IP addresses, the server must also have a database relating hardware address to IP address. This client IP address is then placed into a field in the bootreply. The BOOTP packet is enclosed in a standard IP UDP datagram.
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