OSF DCE Application Development Guide--Core Components

RPC and Other DCE Components
profile administrator can set up profile elements that refer (directly or indirectly) to only
a subset of the server entries that offer a given RPC interface. Also, the administrator
can assign different search priorities to the elements for an interface.
14.3.1.6 Guidelines for Constructing Names of Directory Service Entries
A global name includes both a cell name and a cell-relative name composed of a
directory pathname and a leaf name. The cell name is assigned to a cell root at its
creation. When you specify only a cell-relative name to an NSI operation, NSI
automatically expands the name into a global name by inserting the local cell name.
When returning the name of a directory service entry, a group member, or a member in
a profile element, NSI operations return global names.
The directory pathname and leaf name uniquely identify a directory service entry. The
leaf name should somehow describe the entry; for example, by identifying its owner or
its contents. The remainder of this section contains guidelines for choosing leaf names.
Note: Directory pathnames and leaf names are case sensitive.
Use the following guidelines for constructing names:
• Naming a server entry
For a server entry that advertises an RPC interface or service offered by a server, the
leaf name must distinguish the entry from the equivalent entries of other servers.
When a single server instance runs on a host, you can ensure a unique name by
combining the name of the service, interface (from the interface definition), or the
system name for the server’s host system.
For example, consider two servers, one offering a calendar service on host JULES,
and one on host VERNE.
The server on JULES uses the following leaf name:
calendar_JULES
The server on VERNE uses the following leaf name:
calendar_VERNE
For servers that perform tasks on or for a specific system, an alternative approach is
to create server entries in a system-specific host directory within the namespace.
Each host directory takes the name of the host to which it corresponds. Because the
directory name identifies the system, the leaf name of the server entry name does
not need to include the host name, for example:
/.:/LandS/host_1/Process_control
To construct names for the server entries used by distinctive server instances on a
single host, you can construct unique server entry names by combining the
following information: the name of the server’s service, interface, or object; the
system name of the server’s host system; and a reusable instance identifier such as
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