5.8 Module ns: global name server
The name server provides a basic mechanism to initiate distributed
computation. Due to lexical scoping, programs running on different
machines cannot refer to names that are remotely defined, unless
these names were sent to them. To bootstrap the process, a global
table of publicly-available names is maintained by one runtime
running in server-mode.
According to their distributed protocols, programs will usually
first register and/or lookup a few values from this table before
the actual computation begins. Once this is done, the name server
does not need to be used anymore.
The global ordering of register/lookup calls may depend on the way
the different runtimes are started. Accordingly, a lookup to a name
that is not defined yet in the nameserver blocks until this name
gets registered. Assuming that every name is registered at most
once, this guarantees that the values obtained from the
name-server, if any, are always the same.
Except for the command-line options (cf. 10) and the
availability of the nameserver in case of partial failure, there is
no visible difference between server- and client- runtimes.
Beware! In this release no typechecking is performed on the values
stored in the table; if a value of some type is registered, then
read in a context that expects another incompatible type, anything
may happen.
val register : <string * 'a> -> <>
ns.register(s,v) registers some arbitrary value v under a given name s.
The key s is a string that must not have been previously registered.
val lookup : <string> -> <'b>
ns.lookup(s) returns the value registered under the name s,
if any. The key s is a string that must have been registered by
another process; the function blocks if this is not the case.
WARNING: no typechecking on the incoming value.
val server : bool
true if the nameserver is running locally, false
otherwise.
val address : string
The host name used by the name server
val port : int
The port number used by the name server
val fork_client : < string >
ns.fork_client(cmd) starts a new runtime by calling sh on the
command cmd with additional options that specify client mode
using the IP address and port number of the current name
server. This does not affects the current runtime.
Typical examples of cmds are ``mycode.out'' and
``rsh there.inria.fr ~/program/mine.out''