Namespace Service Providers

A namespace provider implements an interface mapping between the Winsock namespace SPI and the native programmatic interface of an existing name service such as DNS, X.500, or NetWare Directory Services (NDS). While a namespace provider supports exactly one namespace, it is possible for multiple providers for a given namespace to be installed. It is also possible for a single DLL to create an instance of multiple namespace providers. As namespace providers are installed, a catalog of WSANAMESPACE_INFO structures is maintained. An application may use WSAEnumNameSpaceProviders to discover which namespaces are supported on a computer.

On Windows Vista and later, an enhanced WSANAMESPACE_INFOEX structure and WSAEnumNameSpaceProvidersEx function are provided.

On 64-bit platforms, similar WSCEnumNameSpaceProviders32 and WSCEnumNameSpaceProvidersEx32 functions are provided to enumerate the 32-bit catalog.

Refer to Winsock Namespace Service Provider Requirements for detailed information.

Legacy GetXbyY Service Providers

Windows Sockets 2 fully supports the TCP/IP-specific name resolution facilities found in Windows Sockets version 1.1. It does this by including the set of GetXbyY functions in the SPI. However, the treatment of this set of functions is somewhat different from the rest of the SPI functions. The GetXbyY functions appearing in the SPI are prefaced with GETXBYYSP_, and are summarized in the following table.

Berkeley Style Functions

SPI function name	Description
GETXBYYSP_gethostbyaddr	Supplies a hostent structure for the specified host address.
GETXBYYSP_gethostbyname	Supplies a hostent structure for the specified host name.
GETXBYYSP_getprotobyname	Supplies a protoent structure for the specified protocol name.
GETXBYYSP_getprotobynumber	Supplies a protoent structure for the specified protocol number.
GETXBYYSP_getservbyname	Supplies a servent structure for the specified service nam.e
GETXBYYSP_getservbyport	Supplies a servent structure for the service at the specified port.
GETXBYYSP_gethostname	Returns the standard host name for the local computer.

 

Async Style Functions

SPI function name	Description
GETXBYYSP_WSAAsyncGetHostByAddr	Supplies a hostent structure for the specified host address.
GETXBYYSP_WSAAsyncGetHostByName	Supplies a hostent structure for the specified host name.
GETXBYYSP_WSAAsyncGetProtoByName	Supplies a protoent structure for the specified protocol name.
GETXBYYSP_WSAAsyncGetProtoByNumber	Supplies a protoent structure for the specified protocol number.
GETXBYYSP_WSAAsyncGetServByName	Supplies a servent structure for the specified service name.
GETXBYYSP_WSAAsyncGetServByPort	Supplies a servent structure for the service at the specified port.
GETXBYYSP_WSACancelAsyncRequest	Cancels an asynchronous GetXbyY operation.

 

The syntax and semantics of these GetXbyY functions in the SPI are exactly the same as those documented in the API Specification and are, therefore, not repeated here.

The Windows Sockets 2 DLL allows exactly one service provider to offer these services. Therefore, there is no need to include pointers to these functions in the procedure table received from service providers at startup. In Windows environments the path to the DLL that implements these functions is retrieved from the value found in the following registry path. This registry entry does not exist by default:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\WinSock2\Parameters\GetXByYLibraryPath

Built-In Default GetXbyY Service Provider

A default GetXbyY service provider is integrated into the standard Windows Sockets 2 run-time components. This default provider implements all of the above functions, thus it is not required for these functions to be implemented by any namespace provider. However, a namespace provider is free to provide any or all of these functions (and thus override the defaults) by simply storing the string which is the path to the DLL that implements these functions in the indicated registry key. Any of the GetXbyY functions not exported by the named provider DLL will be supplied through the built-in defaults. Note, however, that if a provider elects to supply any of the async version of the GetXbyY functions, he should supply all of the async functions so that the cancel operation will work appropriately.

The current implementation of the default GetXbyY service provider resides within the Wsock32.dll. Depending on how the TCP/IP settings have been established through Control Panel, name resolution will occur using either DNS or local host files. When DNS is used, the default GetXbyY service provider uses standard Windows Sockets 1.1 API calls to communicate with the DNS server. These transactions will occur using whatever TCP/IP stack is configured as the default TCP/IP stack. Two special cases however, deserve special mention.

The default implementation of GETXBYYSP_gethostname obtains the local host name from the registry. This will correspond to the name assigned to "My Computer". The default implementation of GETXBYYSP_gethostbyname and GETXBYYSP_WSAAsyncGetHostByName always compares the supplied host name with the local host name. If they match, the default implementation uses a private interface to probe the Microsoft TCP/IP stack in order to discover its local IP address. Thus, in order to be completely independent of the Microsoft TCP/IP stack, a namespace provider must implement both GETXBYYSP_gethostbyname and GETXBYYSP_WSAAsyncGetHostByName.