Service Namespace

The service namespace provides a namespace for services used by or associated with objects within an enterprise. Examples of such services are electronic calendars, faxes, mail, and printing. Service names are identified by the prefixes service/ or _service/.

In the Solaris environment, the service namespace is hierarchical. Service names are slash-separated (/) left-to-right compound names. An application that uses the service namespace can make use of this hierarchical property to reserve a subtree for that application. For example, the printer service reserves the subtree printer in the service namespace.

FNS does not specify how service names or reference types are chosen. These are determined by service providers that share the service namespace. For example, the calendar service uses the name _service/calendar in the service context to name the calendar service and what is bound to the name calendar is determined by the calendar service.

Service Name and Reference Registration

Sun Microsystems, Inc., maintains a registry of the names bound in the first level of the service namespace. To register a name, send an email request to fns-register@sun.com, or write to:

FNS Registration Sun Microsystems, Inc., 901 San Antonio Road, Palo Alto, CA 94303

Please include a brief description of the intended use of the name and a description of the format of the reference that can be bound to that name.

Printer Namespace

The printer namespace provides a namespace for naming printers. The printer namespace is associated with (subordinate to) the service namespace. In other words, printer service and the printer namespace is one of the services in the service namespace. Printer names are identified by the prefixes service/printer or _service/printer. For example, service/printer/laser1 identifies the printer named laser1.