Technical data

3
Managing the Name Space
The name space contains the names and network addresses of the objects
(spoolers, supervisors, logical and physical printers, and queues) that you
create. The name service entry for each object contains information that
includes the address of the server that supports it.
Clients and servers use the name service to locate and bind to the server
that supports a specified network object. When a client or server requires
the binding of a printer name or a server name, it uses the name service to
obtain this information. The name service looks up the requested name and
returns the requested binding to the client. The remote procedure call (RPC)
mechanism uses the returned binding to connect to the server.
Advanced Printing Software supports the following name services:
• Local File Name Service
• Network Information Service (NIS)
• Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)
The client and the server processes use Local File Name Service and NIS
services by default.
This chapter also explains how to modify the default behavior through the
configuration file, apx.conf and the protoserver daemon.
3.1 Local File Name Service
The Local File Name Service works in a single, stand-alone system
configuration or in a distributed environment:
In a stand-alone configuration, the client and servers (spooler and
supervisor) reside on the same workstation. When you create printing
objects, the name service makes their binding information immediately
available; when you delete them, the name service immediately removes
their binding information.
The Local File Name Service stores printer binding information in the
/etc/printers.conf file. A separate instance of the file exists on each
host system. The print system does not support multiple hosts sharing
a single /etc/printers.conf file. The following is an example of a
printers.conf file:
Managing the Name Space 3–1