IPX/SPX Programming Manual

Introduction to NonStop IPX/SPX
HP NonStop IPX/SPX Programming Manual—528022-001
1-4
Servers and Clients
After creating a socket, the application optionally binds the socket to a specific local
address and port, and then sends or receives data on the socket.
When the transfer is complete, the application can shut down the socket and close it.
The HP socket interface is modeled after 4.3 BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution). For
a description of the available HP socket library function calls, see Section 5, Library
Routines. For a summary of the differences between the HP socket interface and the
4.3 BSD UNIX interface, see Porting Considerations on page 3-1. The socket library
function calls include extensions to adapt the Berkeley socket interface to NonStop
operating system features, such as nowait I/O. The socket library function calls are
based on the socket programmatic interface primitives in the 4.3 BSD RVU of the UNIX
operating system. However, the socket function calls do not map exactly to the 4.3
BSD release function calls or functions, nor to the NetWare for UNIX v3.11 API that
uses the TLI “streams” interface.
Servers and Clients
The terms server and client are used in the NonStop IPX/SPX subsystem as they are
customarily used in the client-server or requester-server models, where client is
equivalent to requester. In NonStop IPX/SPX documentation and in this manual:
•
A server is a process that offers a service that can be used over the network; a
server accepts requests, performs the specified services, and returns the results to
requesters.
•
A client is one of the processes that sends requests to the server and waits for the
server to respond.
The NonStop IPX/SPX subsystem cannot act as a Novell file server. For information on
how to develop client and server programs that use sockets, see Programming Using
the Socket Interface on page 3-1.
Note. Throughout this manual, socket refers to the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD)
definition of a socket: an end point for communication. IPX or SPXII socket refers to the socket
address portion of the IPX address. For more information on IPX addresses, see Section 2,
Addressing. Socket is also Novell’s term for the unique port identifier of a network
address/node address/port identifier triple that makes up an IPX address, as described in
Section 2.
Note. The terms socket address and port in a Novell environment are equivalent to port in a
TCP/IP environment. The term socket in a Novell environment is the equivalent to a socket in
a TCP/IP environment.