Distributed Name Service (DNS) Management Programming Manual

5 Using DNS in Programs:
The DNS Commands
46958 Tandem Computers Incorporated 5–1
This section defines all DNS programmatic commands, grouped by command function
(add, alter, copy, delete, info, and status).
The notations !r and !o indicate that the token or field described on that line is,
respectively, required or optional. Some required fields accept a blank or null content;
however, the meaning of the blank or null input in those cases is quite specific and
may produce a result you do not intend. This differs from optional fields, where
defaults are assumed or blank content is ignored.
Overview of DNS
Programmatic
Commands
Programs interact with DNS by opening the DNS name manager ($ZDNS) and
sending requests (in SPI format) to the manager. The name manager acts upon each
request and returns a response (also in SPI format).
Like most subsystems, DNS assigns types to the objects it manages. Since DNS
manages names, this means each name known to DNS has a type, assigned by DNS,
associated with it.
Most commands require an object type be specified in the requester’s call to SSINIT.
The object type parameter specifies the type of name (or names) the command is to act
upon. The combination of command and object type, in many cases, forms a
programmatic equivalent of the interactive commands described in the preceding
section.
The following two tables provide brief descriptions of the programmatic commands
and the object types that are listed in Table 5-1. Table 5-2 lists and describes the basic
function of each of the DNS programmatic commands.
Table 5-1. Functions of the DNS Programmatic Commands
Command Description
ZDNS-CMD-ADD Adds a name definition.
ZDNS-CMD-ALTER Changes the definition of a name.
ZDNS-CMD-COPY Makes a locally updateable copy of a name definition that was created
on another system and replicated to the local one.
ZDNS-CMD-DELETE Deletes a name definition.
ZDNS-CMD-GETVERSION Returns version information of a DNS process.
ZDNS-CMD-INFO Returns information about the definition of names.
ZDNS-CMD-LISTOPENS Returns information about current openers of DNS processes.
ZDNS-CMD-RESTORE Purges a copy of a name definition created by the COPY command.
ZDNS-CMD-STATUS Returns the status of DNS or DNS processes.
ZDNS-CMD-STOP Initiates an orderly shutdown of DNS.
Table 5-2 lists and describes each of the object type parameters used in the DNS
programmatic commands.