Distributed Name Service (DNS) Management Programming Manual

Glossary
46958 Tandem Computers Incorporated Glossary–13
Programmatic interface. A means for a program to communicate with another program.
On a Tandem system, a programmatic interface typically includes the following: a
message format, a set of message formats, or a set of procedures (such as the SPI
procedures) to build and decode messages; definitions of message elements
(commands, data types, objects, parameters, response data, errors, and so on); rules for
communication between the requester and the server; and software to receive and
respond to messages defined for the interface.
Programmed operator. A management application that performs functions that might
otherwise be performed by a human operator.
Read authority. Permission to read the contents of a file. This security attribute is
required to query the DNS database.
Replication. The duplication of all or part of a database on different disks or at different
nodes in a network.
Reply, reply message. One message from a server to a requester, in reaction to a request.
Request, or request message. One message from a requester to a server.
Requester version. The software revision level of the definition files used in the
compilation of a requester. Each subsystem has its own definitions, so the requester
version can differ in requests to different subsystems.
Response. The information or confirmation supplied by a subsystem in reaction to a
command. A response is typically conveyed as one or more interprocess messages
(reply messages) from a subsystem to an application.
Response-control token. A parameter token or response token that influences or reflects
how a subsystem packages its response to a command. Response-control tokens are
defined by SPI, rather than by subsystems; they include the maximum-response token,
the response-type token, and the context token.
Response record. A set of response tokens, usually describing the results of performing
a command on one object. A response can consist of multiple response records, spread
across one or more reply messages. A reply message always contains a whole number
of response records (that is, a response record cannot be split between two messages).
If there are multiple response records in a reply message, each response record is
enclosed in a data list. See data list. Each response record is required to contain a
return token. See also Return token.
Response token. A token returned as an element of a response. Response tokens
include information tokens (which contain response data of interest to the application),
syntax tokens (such as list tokens), one special response-control token (the context
token), the return token, and error tokens.
Return token. The response token that indicates whether a command was successful or
why it failed. Every response record in a response from a Tandem subsystem contains
a return token; a response record can also contain error lists that include error tokens.
The token code for the return token is ZSPI-TKN-RETCODE. Its value consists of a
single integer field. Compare with Error token.