slpd(1M)

NAME

slpd — Service Location Protocol (SLP) Daemon

SYNOPSIS

slpd [-c configuration_file] [-r registration_file] [-l log_file] [-p pid_file] [-d]

DESCRIPTION

The slpd daemon provides the functionality of the Directory Agent and Service Agent for the Service Location Protocol ("SLP") version 2. SLP provides a scalable framework that allows the networking applications to discover the existence, location and configuration of networked services in the enterprise networks.

slpd provides the functionality of the following services:

Directory Agent (DA)

This agent collects service advertisements from the service agents or applications providing the services and caches them in its memory. The DA then provides this services information to the clients (user agents) trying to discover the service information. Directory agents advertise their presence through directory agent advertisements.

Service Agent Server (SA)

This server registers the service information of all the services that are advertised by the corresponding service agents to this server. It then answers the queries from the user agents about the information on the services that were registered with this server by the services agents. It also forwards the registrations to any Directory Agents that may be present in its scope.

slpd also provides a -r option whereby the existing services which are not slp enabled can advertise information by storing this information in a static registration file. See below for the options. slpd reads this file and provides the information to the user agents.

slpd can be either started as an SA server or DA by setting net.slp.isDA to either false or true in the configuration file. In both the cases, slpd runs as a daemon listening for SLP requests. When slpd is acting as a DA, it registers the services coming from within the host acting as a SA server and acts as DA for the User Agents (UAs) running on the remote machines.

slpd can be configured to provision services within a scope that is configured by the administrator by setting net.slp.useScopes in the configuration file. SLP daemon will answer to requests only if it falls within this scope. This feature of scoping of SLP daemon provides provisioning of services in an Enterprise network based on administration needs, geographical needs or department needs and also provides scalability.

See RFC2608 for more information on the Service Location Protocol. Without any arguments, slpd reads the default configuration file, /etc/slp.conf.

Options

The options are:

-c configuration_file: Specifies the configuration file to slpd. The default configuration file is /etc/slp.conf.
-d: Do not detach from the terminal.
-l log_file: Specifies the log file that receives slpd log messages. The default log file is /var/adm/syslog/slpd.log.
-p pid_file: Specifies the file that holds the slpd process id. The default slpd process id file is /var/run/slpd.pid.
-r registration_file: Specifies the registration file to slpd for reading service information. The default registration file is /etc/slp.reg.

To restart the slpd daemon, send it a SIGHUP signal.

To kill the slpd daemon, send it a SIGTERM signal.

The slpdc command can also be used for sending signals to the server process (see the slpdc(1M) manpage).

DIAGNOSTICS

Any errors encountered by slpd in the registration or configuration file or in normal operation are logged in the log file, /var/adm/syslog/slpd.log, which is the default file. To change this log file, use the slpd -l log_file command.

AUTHOR

slpd was developed by the Caldera Systems, Inc.

FILES

/etc/slp.conf: SLP configuration file
/etc/slp.reg: SLP registration file
/var/run/slpd.pid: File storing slpd process ID
/var/adm/syslog/slpd.log: Default SLP log file

slpd(1M)

Technical documentation

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