slp(7P)

NAME

     slp - Service Location Protocol

DESCRIPTION

     The Service Location Protocol (SLP)  is  a  dynamic  service
     discovery protocol that runs on top of the Internet Protocol
     (IP). The protocol is specified by the  IETF  standard-track
     documents  RFC  2165,   RFC 2608, RFC 2609; the API is docu-
     mented in RFC 2614. .

     There are two components to the SLP technology. The first is
     a  daemon,  slpd(1M),  which coordinates SLP operations. The
     second is a software library, slp_api(3slp),  through  which
     processes  access  a public API. Both components are config-
     ured by means of the SLP configuration file, slp.conf(4).

     The SLP API is useful for two types of processes:

          Client Applications
                Services and service information can be requested
                from  the  API.   Clients do not need to know the
                location of a required service, only the type  of
                service, and optionally, the service characteris-
                tics.  SLP will supply  the  location  and  other
                information to the client through the API.

          Server Processes
                Programs that offer network services use the  SLP
                API  to advertise their location as well as other
                service  information.   The   advertisement   can
                optionally include attributes describing the ser-
                vice. Advertisements are accompanied by  a  life-
                time;  when  the lifetime expires, the advertise-
                ment is flushed, unless it is refreshed prior  to
                expiration.

     API  libraries  are  available  for  both  the  C  and  Java
     languages.

     SLP provides the following additional features:

        o  slpd(1M) can be configured  to  function  as  a  tran-
           sparent  directory agent. This feature makes SLP scal-
           able to the enterprise. System administrators can con-
           figure  directory  agents  to achieve a number of dif-
           ferent strategies for scalability.

        o  SLP service advertising and discovery is performed  in
           scopes. Unless otherwise configured, all discovery and
           all advertisements are in the scope  default.  In  the
           case  of a larger network, scopes can be used to group
           services and client systems so that  users  will  only
           find  those  services  which are physically near them,
           belong to their department, or satisfy  the  specified
           criteria.   Administrators  can configure these scopes
           to achieve different service provider strategies.

        o  Services may be registered by proxy through a  serial-
           ized  registration  file.  This  is  an alternative to
           registering services through the API. See  slpd.reg(4)
           for more information.

ATTRIBUTES

     See attributes(5)
      for descriptions of the following attributes:

     ____________________________________________________________
    |       ATTRIBUTE TYPE        |       ATTRIBUTE VALUE       |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|
    | Availability                | SUNWslpu                    |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|
    | CSI                         | CSI-enabled                 |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|
    | Interface Stability         | Standard                    |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|
    | MT-Level                    | MT-Safe                     |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|

SEE ALSO

     slpd(1m), slp_api(3slp),  slp.conf(4),  slpd.reg(4),  attri-
     butes(5)

     Guttman, E.,  Perkins, C., Veizades, J., and  Day,  M.,  RFC
     2608,  Service  Location  Protocol,  Version 2, The Internet
     Society, June 1999.

     Guttman, E.,  Perkins, C., and Kempf, J., RFC 2609,  Service
     Templates  and  Service: Schemes, The Internet Society, June
     1999.

     Kempf, J. and Guttman, E., RFC  2614,  An  API  for  Service
     Location, The Internet Society, June 1999.

     Veizades, J., Guttman, E.,  Perkins, C., and Kaplan, S., RFC
     2165,  Service  Location  Protocol,  Network  Working Group,
     1997.