Distributed Name Service (DNS) Management Programming Manual

Glossary

46958 Tandem Computers Incorporated Glossary–11

Name manager. The multithreaded management process through which applications

and DNSCOM request input/output to the DNS database on their behalf. This

NonStop process pair has the name $ZDNS, by default.

Name resolution. The process of transforming an alias into a subsystem-object name.

Nested error list. An error list contained in another error list. When an error in one

subsystem or in a library procedure prevents another subsystem from performing a

command, the calling subsystem reports this pass-through error by nesting error lists

in its own response. For instance, a response from FUP might include an error list

explaining the FUP error, which in turn contains an error list explaining the SORT

error that caused the FUP error. See also Pass-through error.

Network control node. A node responsible for management of objects on one or more

other nodes.

Next position. The location where a subsequent operation will take place. In SPI, the

next position is the location in the SPI buffer from which SSGET will normally retrieve

a token value or token attribute. (An exception is the special calling mode for

requesting an attribute of the current token.) Compare with Current position and

Initial position.

Node. An individual Tandem computer system within a network of such systems.

(Each system consists of two or more processor modules, an interprocessor bus, an

input/output channel, and two or more device controllers.)

Null value. A value indicating that a program has made no explicit assignment to a

variable or field. In the context of SPI, a field of a structure has a null value if the

application has made no explicit assignment to that field after calling the SSNULL

procedure to initialize the structure.

Object. In SPI, an entity subject to independent reference and control by a subsystem:

for example, the disk file $DATA or the data communications line $X2502. An object

typically has a name and a type known to the controlling subsystem. In DDL, an item

in a dictionary. DDL assigns each object a unique object number for identification.

Object-name token. A parameter or response token that identifies, by name, a particular

object of a given object type. An object-name token is a kind of object-selector token.