Bonjour is

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

's implementation of

zero-configuration networking Zero-configuration networking (zeroconf) is a set of technologies that automatically creates a usable computer network based on the Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) when computers or network peripherals are interconnected. It does not require manu ...

(zeroconf), a group of technologies that includes

service discovery Service discovery is the process of automatically detecting devices and services on a computer network. It aims to reduce the manual configuration effort required from users and administrators. A service discovery protocol (SDP) is a network pro ...

, address assignment, and hostname resolution. Bonjour locates devices such as printers, other computers, and the services that those devices offer on a

local network A local area network (LAN) is a computer network that interconnects computers within a limited area such as a residence, campus, or building, and has its network equipment and interconnects locally managed. LANs facilitate the distribution of d ...

using multicast Domain Name System (mDNS) service records. The software comes built-in with Apple's

macOS macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

and

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

operating systems. Bonjour can also be installed onto computers running

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

. Bonjour components may also be included within other software such as

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

and

Safari A safari (; originally ) is an overland journey to observe wildlife, wild animals, especially in East Africa. The so-called big five game, "Big Five" game animals of Africa – lion, African leopard, leopard, rhinoceros, African elephant, elep ...

. It was originally introduced in 2002 with Mac OS X 10.2 with the name Rendezvous. It was renamed in 2005 to Bonjour following an out-of-court trademark dispute settlement.

Overview

Bonjour provides a general method to discover services on a

local area network A local area network (LAN) is a computer network that interconnects computers within a limited area such as a residence, campus, or building, and has its network equipment and interconnects locally managed. LANs facilitate the distribution of da ...

. The software is widely used throughout macOS, and allows users to set up a network without any configuration. it is used to find printers and file-sharing servers. Notable applications using Bonjour include: *

to find shared music *

iPhoto iPhoto is a discontinued image editing software application developed by Apple Inc. for use on its Mac OS X operating system. It was included with every Mac computer from 2002 to 2015, when it was replaced with Apple's Photos application in ...

to find shared photos *

Adium Adium is a free software, free and Open-source software, open-source instant messaging client (computing), client for macOS that supports multiple IM networks, including XMPP (Jabber), IRC and more. In the past, it has also supported AOL Instant ...

Pidgin A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a grammatically simplified form of contact language that develops between two or more groups of people that do not have a language in common: typically, its vocabulary and grammar are limited and often drawn f ...

, Vine Server, and Elgato EyeTV to communicate with multiple clients *

SubEthaEdit SubEthaEdit is a collaborative real-time editor designed for Mac OS X. The name comes from the Sub-Etha communication network in ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' series. History SubEthaEdit was first released under the name Hydra in earl ...

to find document collaborators *

Solidworks SolidWorks (stylized as SOLIDWORKS) is a brand of software used for solid modeling computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided engineering (CAE). It was one of the first 3D CAD applications designed to run on a desktop PC. The brand is owned ...

and PhotoView 360 to manage licenses * Things and OmniFocus to synchronize projects and tasks across the Mac desktop and the iPad, iPhone or iPod touch *

to find local web servers and configuration pages for local devices Software such as Bonjour Browser or iStumbler, both for macOS, can be used to view all services declared by these applications. Apple's "Remote" application for iPhone and iPod Touch also uses Bonjour to establish connection to iTunes libraries via Wi-Fi. Bonjour only works within a single

broadcast domain A broadcast domain is a logical division of a computer network, in which all nodes can reach each other by broadcast at the data link layer. A broadcast domain can be within the same LAN segment or it can be bridged to other LAN segments. In te ...

, which is usually a small area, without special DNS

configuration Configuration or configurations may refer to: Computing * Computer configuration or system configuration * Configuration file, a software file used to configure the initial settings for a computer program * Configurator, also known as choice board ...

. macOS, Bonjour for Windows and

AirPort An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial Aviation, air transport. They usually consist of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surf ...

Base Stations may be configured to use Wide Area Bonjour which allows for wide area service discovery via an appropriately configured DNS server. Applications generally implement Bonjour services using standard

TCP/IP The Internet protocol suite, commonly known as TCP/IP, is a framework for organizing the communication protocols used in the Internet and similar computer networks according to functional criteria. The foundational protocols in the suite are ...

calls, rather than in the operating system. Although macOS provides various Bonjour services, Bonjour also works on other operating systems. Apple has made the source code of the Bonjour

multicast In computer networking, multicast is a type of group communication where data transmission is addressed to a group of destination computers simultaneously. Multicast can be one-to-many or many-to-many distribution. Multicast differs from ph ...

DNS responder, the core component of service discovery, available as a Darwin

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

project. The project provides source code to build the responder daemon for a wide range of platforms, including

Mac OS 9 Mac OS 9 is the ninth and final major release of the classic Mac OS operating system for Macintosh computers, made by Apple Computer. Introduced on October 23, 1999, it was promoted by Apple as "The Best Internet Operating System Ever", highlight ...

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

, *BSD,

Solaris Solaris is the Latin word for sun. It may refer to: Arts and entertainment Literature, television and film * ''Solaris'' (novel), a 1961 science fiction novel by Stanisław Lem ** ''Solaris'' (1968 film), directed by Boris Nirenburg ** ''Sol ...

VxWorks VxWorks is a real-time operating system (or RTOS) developed as proprietary software by Wind River Systems, a subsidiary of Aptiv. First released in 1987, VxWorks is designed for use in embedded systems requiring real-time, Deterministic system, ...

, and

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

. Apple also provides a user-installable set of services called Bonjour for Windows and Java libraries.

Licensing

Bonjour is released under a terms-of-limited-use license by Apple. It is

freeware Freeware is software, often proprietary, that is distributed at no monetary cost to the end user. There is no agreed-upon set of rights, license, or EULA that defines ''freeware'' unambiguously; every publisher defines its own rules for the free ...

for clients, though developers and software companies who wish to redistribute it as part of a software package or use the Bonjour logo may need a

licensing agreement A license (American English) or licence (Commonwealth English) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another part ...

. The source code for mDNSResponder is available under the

Apache License The Apache License is a permissive free software license written by the Apache Software Foundation (ASF). It allows users to use the software for any purpose, to distribute it, to modify it, and to distribute modified versions of the software ...

Naming

Apple originally introduced the Bonjour software in August 2002 as part of Mac OS X 10.2 under the name "Rendezvous". On August 27, 2003 TIBCO Software announced that it had filed a lawsuit for trademark infringement. TIBCO had an enterprise application integration product called TIBCO Rendezvous on the market since 1994 and stated that it had tried to come to an agreement with Apple Computer. In July 2004, Apple and TIBCO reached an out-of-court settlement; specifics of the settlement were not released to the public. On April 12, 2005, Apple announced the renaming of Rendezvous to "Bonjour". The current name ''Bonjour'' is French for the morning or afternoon greeting, "good day". The previous name ''Rendezvous'' is French for "meeting", "appointment" or "date". The term ''Bonjour'' has many other meanings as well, such as "hello, good day" or "good afternoon".

Other implementations

Bonjour version 2.0, released on February 24, 2010, works with Microsoft Windows 2000, 2003, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, 10, and 11. Systems use it primarily to facilitate the installation, configuration, and use of network printers, and thus it runs from startup. When Bonjour is fully implemented on Windows, some features—such as iChat—allow for communication between Windows and Mac OS. Bonjour for Windows also adds

zeroconf Zero-configuration networking (zeroconf) is a set of technologies that automatically creates a usable computer network based on the Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) when computers or network peripherals are interconnected. It does not require manu ...

capabilities to

Internet Explorer Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer and Windows Internet Explorer, commonly abbreviated as IE or MSIE) is a deprecation, retired series of graphical user interface, graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft that were u ...

, and provides a zeroconf implementation to Java VMs. Some third-party applications, such as

Adobe Adobe (from arabic: الطوب Attub ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for mudbrick. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is use ...

's Photoshop CS3 suite, also come bundled with Bonjour to take advantage of zeroconf technology. Installers on Windows systems normally place Bonjour files in a folder called "Bonjour" within the "Program Files" folder. It modifies Windows system-registry entries related to internal network configuration and operation. Bonjour runs as mDNSResponder.exe. Communications across the network take place over UDP port 5353, which may require reconfiguring some personal or corporate firewalls that block Bonjour packets. A full installation of Bonjour for Windows will include a plug-in for Internet Explorer, a printer wizard, and the network communication services. Not all components are included when installed as part of a third-party application or as a component of other Apple software such as iTunes. Some

VPN Virtual private network (VPN) is a network architecture for virtually extending a private network (i.e. any computer network which is not the public Internet) across one or multiple other networks which are either untrusted (as they are not c ...

clients are configured so that local network services are unavailable to a computer when VPN software is active and connected. In such a case no local zeroconf services are available to Bonjour or any other zeroconf implementation. In September 2008, two security vulnerabilities were found in Bonjour for Windows. Certain installations of Bonjour for Windows lack an

uninstaller An uninstaller, also called a deinstaller, is a variety of utility software designed to remove other software or parts of it from a computer. It is the opposite of an installer. Uninstallers are useful primarily when software components are instal ...

and do not display a human-readable entry in the

Windows service In Windows NT operating systems, a Windows service is a computer program that operates in the background. It is similar in concept to a Unix daemon. A Windows service must conform to the interface rules and protocols of the Service Control Manag ...

s listing. In 32- and 64-bit releases of Windows 7, some older but still available versions of Bonjour services can disable all network connectivity by adding an entry of 0.0.0.0 as the

default gateway A default gateway is the node in a computer network using the Internet protocol suite that serves as the forwarding host ( router) to other networks when no other route specification matches the destination IP address of a packet. Role A gatew ...

. This was a bug reported in 2013. The open-source IM clients

, Kopete and

support the Bonjour IM protocol, as does the closed-source Trillian client.

Browsers

A number of browsers allow an end-user to graphically explore the devices found using Bonjour.

Discovery / Bonjour Browser

Discovery is a

Creative Commons Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has release ...

-licensed

application that displays all services declared using Bonjour. The program was originally called Rendezvous Browser, but changed its name in version 1.5.4 after

changed the protocol's name to Bonjour; since version 2.0, it has been renamed again, to Discovery. For certain protocols, double-clicking a list item will launch the associated helper. Version 1.5.6 was the first universal binary release. Future versions will allow users to completely define a service, instead of relying on the author to do so. Bonjour Browser was recommended for

in ''

MacAddict ''MacLife'' (stylized as ''Mac, Life'') is an American monthly magazine published by Future US. It focuses on products produced by Apple, including the Macintosh personal computer, iPad, and iPhone. It was sold as a print product on newsstands, ...

'' #123. Discovery is available on the Apple App Store.

JBonjourBrowser

A student research project at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

produced a Java-based system to match the functionality of Bonjour Browser, called JBonjourBrowser. JBonjourBrowser is open-source and available under the GPL. JBonjourBrowser was built to emulate the functionality of Bonjour Browser, and at the same time work on multiple platforms. It requires Apple's Bonjour Java library to run.

Bonjour Browser for Windows

A native Windows application offers similar functions to Bonjour Browser for Mac OS. Bonjour Browser for Windows is offered for free by Hobbyist Software and HandyDev Software.

mDNSBrowser

A commercial implementation called mDNSBrowser is offered by Netputing Systems Inc.

References

External links

* – Developer resources from Apple
Bonjour – Networking, simplified
– General information from Apple
Apple – Support – Bonjour
– Bonjour support from Apple

– List of officially registered Bonjour service types
Bonjour
The official Bonjour site on Mac OS Forge.
Zeroconf
– site with myriad useful links maintained by Stuart Cheshire
Hour-long talk
by Stuart Cheshire on Talks at Google about Bonjour and zeroconf (November 2, 2005)
Stuart Cheshire and Rendezvous mentioned on Daniel Smith's blog on the O'Reilly Network

Bonjour Browser for Windows
– Bonjour Browser for Windows

– An introduction to zero configuration networking, including a comparison between Bonjour/zeroconf and Universal Plug 'n' Play
mDNSBrowser website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bonjour (Software) 2002 software Apple Inc. software MacOS Utilities for macOS Service discovery protocols