Bonjour, also known as zero-configuration networking, enables automatic discovery of devices and services on a local network using industry standard IP protocols. Bonjour makes it easy to discover, publish, and resolve network services with a sophisticated, easy-to-use programming interface that is accessible from Cocoa, Ruby, Python, and other languages.
Bonjour for macOS and iOS
Bonjour for Windows
Source Code and Specifications
Bonjour is not only based on open Internet standards, our implementation is also available as Open Source under the Apache 2.0 license. It is built into most modern printers and many other consumer products.
Licensing and Trademarks
If you plan to use the Bonjour logo with your Bonjour-enabled products, be sure to review the latest guidelines and agreements.
Related Resources
Bonjour Service provides a general method to discover services on a local area network. The software is widely used throughout Mac OS and Windows for iOS devices, and allows users to set up a network without any configuration. It is used to find printers and file-sharing servers. ITunes uses Bonjour to find shared music, iPhoto to find shared. Download Discovery - DNS-SD Browser for macOS 10.12 or later and enjoy it on your Mac. Discovery is a utility that displays all of the Bonjour services available on the local network or on Wide-Area Bonjour domains.
The Bonjour zero-configuration networking architecture provides support for publishing and discovering TCP/IP-based services on a local area or wide area network. This document describes the Bonjour architecture at a high level and briefly describes what Bonjour APIs are available.
Bonjour Service provides a general method to discover services on a local area network. The software is widely used throughout Mac OS and Windows for iOS devices, and allows users to set up a network without any configuration. It is used to find printers and file-sharing servers. ITunes uses Bonjour to find shared music, iPhoto to find shared.
Important: This document is not meant as a programming guide. It is intended to provide a high-level overview. For more detailed coverage at the API level (including code snippets), you should read DNS Service Discovery Programming Guide or NSNetServices and CFNetServices Programming Guide.
At a Glance
Bonjour is Apple’s implementation of a suite of zero-configuration networking protocols. Bonjour is designed to make network configuration easier for users.
For example, Bonjour lets you connect a printer to your network without the need to assign it a specific IP address or manually enter that address into each computer. With zero-configuration networking, nearby computers can discover its existence and automatically determine the printer’s IP address. And if that address is a dynamically assigned address that changes, they can automatically discover the new address in the future.
Apps can also leverage Bonjour to automatically detect other instances of the app (or other services) on the network. For example, two users running an iOS photo sharing app could share photos over a Bluetooth personal area network without the need to manually configure IP addresses on either device.
Bonjour Provides Efficient Service Discovery
Bonjour For Mac Osx
The Bonjour protocol supports advertising and discovering services in a manner that is efficient and robust using multicast DNS (mDNS) and, when needed, link-local addressing.
Bonjour Reserves the .local Domain for mDNS-Advertised Services
Bonjour host names and service names are constructed using a specific set of rules.
Relevant Chapters:Domain Naming Conventions
Bonjour Uses SRV, TXT, and PTR Records to Look Up Services
Bonjour uses service-specific records to advertise the existence of services. PTR records let you discover all of the services in a domain;SRV records translate a service instance name, type, and domain into a hostname and port; A and AAAA records translate a host name into an IP address, and TXT records provide additional information about a service.
Bonjour Provides APIs at Multiple Layers in OS X and iOS
In OS X and iOS, Bonjour provides the ability to advertise and discover services using Foundation, Core Foundation, and C APIs. In OS X, Bonjour also provides a Java API. On other platforms such as Windows and Linux, Bonjour provides a C API.
Relevant Chapters:Bonjour API Architecture
Prerequisites
This document assumes that you are already familiar with the networking concepts described in Networking Overview and Networking Concepts.
See Also
DNS Service Discovery Programming Guide describes the Bonjour API appropriate for Darwin and Windows programmers and developers.
NSNetServices and CFNetServices Programming Guide describes the Bonjour API appropriate for Cocoa programmers and C and C++ programmers on OS X and iOS.
Install Bonjour For Windows
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