1.1 Glossary

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This document uses the following terms:

activation: In COM, a local mechanism by which a client provides the CLSID of an object class and obtains an object, either an object from that object class or a class factory that is able to create such objects.

application domain: A virtual process space within which managed code applications are hosted and executed. It is possible to have multiple managed code applications running inside a single process. Each managed code application runs within its own application domain and is isolated from other applications that are running in separate application domains. An application domain has a unique identifier used as part of the identifying key on a state server when storing and retrieving session data.

application domain identifier (ID): A number used to uniquely identify an application domain.

class identifier (CLSID): A GUID that identifies a software component; for instance, a DCOM object class or a COM class.

common language runtime (CLR): The core runtime engine in the Microsoft .NET Framework for executing applications. The common language runtime supplies managed code with services such as cross-language integration, code access security, object lifetime management, and debugging and profiling support.

deactivation: Resetting the state of the server object instance such that a new server object instance is created when the object instance is called again by the client.

dynamic endpoint: A network-specific server address that is requested and assigned at run time. For more information, see [C706].

endpoint: A network-specific address of a remote procedure call (RPC) server process for remote procedure calls. The actual name and type of the endpoint depends on the RPC protocol sequence that is being used. For example, for RPC over TCP (RPC Protocol Sequence ncacn_ip_tcp), an endpoint might be TCP port 1025. For RPC over Server Message Block (RPC Protocol Sequence ncacn_np), an endpoint might be the name of a named pipe. For more information, see [C706].

garbage collection: The process of identifying logically deleted objects (also known as tombstones) and link values that have passed their tombstone lifetime, and then permanently removing these objects from a naming context (NC) replica. Garbage collection does not generate replication traffic.

globally unique identifier (GUID): A term used interchangeably with universally unique identifier (UUID) in Microsoft protocol technical documents (TDs). Interchanging the usage of these terms does not imply or require a specific algorithm or mechanism to generate the value. Specifically, the use of this term does not imply or require that the algorithms described in [RFC4122] or [C706] must be used for generating the GUID. See also universally unique identifier (UUID).

Interface Definition Language (IDL): The International Standards Organization (ISO) standard language for specifying the interface for remote procedure calls. For more information, see [C706] section 4.

interface pointer: A pointer to an interface that is implemented by an [MS-DCOM] object.

Network Data Representation (NDR): A specification that defines a mapping from Interface Definition Language (IDL) data types onto octet streams. NDR also refers to the runtime environment that implements the mapping facilities (for example, data provided to NDR). For more information, see [MS-RPCE] and [C706] section 14.

object: In COM, a software entity that implements the IUnknown interface and zero or more additional interfaces that may be obtained from each other using the IUnknown interface. A COM object can be exposed to remote clients via the DCOM protocol, in which case it is also a DCOM object.

object class: In COM, a category of objects identified by a CLSID, members of which can be obtained through activation of the CLSID.

opnum: An operation number or numeric identifier that is used to identify a specific remote procedure call (RPC) method or a method in an interface. For more information, see [C706] section 12.5.2.12 or [MS-RPCE].

process identifier (PID): A nonzero integer used by some operating systems (for example, Windows and UNIX) to uniquely identify a process. For more information, see [PROCESS].

remote procedure call (RPC): A communication protocol used primarily between client and server. The term has three definitions that are often used interchangeably: a runtime environment providing for communication facilities between computers (the RPC runtime); a set of request-and-response message exchanges between computers (the RPC exchange); and the single message from an RPC exchange (the RPC message).  For more information, see [C706].

Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): A string that identifies a resource. The URI is an addressing mechanism defined in Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax [RFC3986].

universally unique identifier (UUID): A 128-bit value. UUIDs can be used for multiple purposes, from tagging objects with an extremely short lifetime, to reliably identifying very persistent objects in cross-process communication such as client and server interfaces, manager entry-point vectors, and RPC objects. UUIDs are highly likely to be unique. UUIDs are also known as globally unique identifiers (GUIDs) and these terms are used interchangeably in the Microsoft protocol technical documents (TDs). Interchanging the usage of these terms does not imply or require a specific algorithm or mechanism to generate the UUID. Specifically, the use of this term does not imply or require that the algorithms described in [RFC4122] or [C706] must be used for generating the UUID.

MAY, SHOULD, MUST, SHOULD NOT, MUST NOT: These terms (in all caps) are used as defined in [RFC2119]. All statements of optional behavior use either MAY, SHOULD, or SHOULD NOT.