### The DS_C_CONTEXT Parameter

The OM class DS_C_CONTEXT is the second parameter to every directory service request. DS_C_CONTEXT defines the characteristics of the directory service interaction that are specific to a particular directory service operation. These characteristics are divided into three categories of OM attributes: common parameters, service controls, and local controls.

Common parameters affect the processing of each directory service operation.

Service controls indicate how the directory service should handle requests. Included in this category are decisions about whether or not chaining is permitted, the priority of requests, the scope of referral (to DSAs within a country or within a DMD), and the maximum number of objects about which a function should return information.

Local controls include asynchronous support and automatic continuation; XDS does not currently support asynchronous operations from within the same thread. Applications requiring asynchronous use of the XDS/XOM API should use threads as defined in Using Threads With The XDS/XOM API.

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