slp_syntax(7)						 Miscellaneous Information Manual					     slp_syntax(7)

NAME

       slp_syntax - SLP Service Type Syntax

DESCRIPTION

       The  SLP API expects service type information to be passed while querying for SLP service information and also while registering and dereg-
       istering services. The SLP API accepts service type information in URL format also.

       The service type string contains the following information.

	      Name of the service type.

	      Naming Authority responsible for the service name.

       The service type string is of the form:

       The abstract-type is a short descriptive string that describes the type of service.

       The naming-authority is the name of the organization that named the service. The naming-authority is optional, but if it is  omitted,  then
       IANA is assumed to be the naming authority and IANA requires service-types to be registered (see RFC 2609).

       concrete-type, also optional, is a kind of sub-type of the abstract-type.

       For example,

	      is an abstract type (owned by IANA) and is a concrete type (owned by IANA).

       The official definition of Service Type strings can be found in RFC 2609, "Service Templates and Service Schemes".

   Examples of Service Type Strings
       A (fictitious) weather service type owned
				 by NASA that uses WTP protocol.

       A (fictitious) weather service type owned
				 by NASA that uses SWTP protocol.

       A chat service type owned by SuperChat.

       A samba printer service type.

       An IANA ftp service type.

       An IANA telnet service type.

   Comparing Service Types
       Since  service  types are important in determining the URLs that are returned by the call, you should understand how services are compared.
       Suppose that three services were registered with using a srvtype of and If a client program calls with a srvtype of the urls for  both  and
       are returned is not).  However, if is called with srvtype of or then the urls for or would be returned.	In other words, if a concrete-type
       is used, only services with the same abstract and concrete-type are returned.  If only the abstract type is used, then all services of that
       abstract type (and naming authority) are returned.

   SLP Service URL Syntax
       SLP  APIs accept service type strings in URL syntax format.  URL strings are passed as parameters to and functions and returned as a result
       to the callback function.  SLP defines a special type of URL called a Service URL that MUST be used when calling SLP  API  functions.   The
       syntax of a service URL is:

       service-type  is  a  service  type as explained above.  addrspec can be any address that fits URL syntax and can be translated as a network
       location.  The and strings are required.

   Service URL Examples
       SLP requires you to use Service URLs.  API functions will return if you do not.	Service URLs are required because the SLP API designers do
       not  allow the service-type to be passed in as a parameter to the call.	Without the service-type, does not allow the caller to distinguish
       between services of varying types that were registered with the same standard URL.

       The function expects the search strings to be passed in LDAPv3 Search Filter Syntax.

SEE ALSO

       slpd(1M), libslp(3N), slp.reg(4).

																     slp_syntax(7)