SYNOPSIS
NNS provides an entry point to MachNetIPC using the netname interface. A registry mapping service can be accessed using the MIG generated netname interface routines: netname_check_in, netname_check_outand netname_look_up. Documentation for the netname interface can be found either in /usr/mach/man or in the xkernel distribution in mach3/api/netipc/netname_star.3 manpages. NNS will not interfere with a previously executing name server. To guarantee that NNS is being used during checkins, lookups and checkouts, do a lookup on the service ``NetworkNameServer'' and use the associated port as the default name server port. That way requests will not mistakenly be directed to another name server instead. See mach3/user/netipc/test/nnstest.c for more details.

REALM
NNS is in the anchor protocol realm; it is specific to the Mach3 platform.

CONFIGURATION
Broadcast name lookup requests are handled using the UDP protocol. NNS depends on the BIDCTL protocol to detect reboots. Additionally the SSR protocol must be configured below NNS. See notes below for details of their interface.

name=nns protocols=udp, bidctl;

NOTES
NNS utilizes the SSR protocol for bootstrapping remote host ports into MachNetIPC. NNS and SSR communicate using a globally defined Mach port which requires that they be configured into the same Mach task.

CAVEATS and DISCLAIMERS
To specify a host in the remote lookup, use the IP address of the host and not the host name. Host name resolutions are currently not supported.

Only a single instance of NNS may run at any time.

AUTHOR
Hasnain Karampurwala