### The GDS Namespace

This topic provides a brief overview of the main characteristics of the GDS namespace regarded apart from the XDS interface used to access it. More detailed information about GDS and XDS can be found in Part 3 and Part 4, respectively.

In a GDS name such as

/.../C=US/O=OSF/OU=DCE

the C=US and O=OSF elements do not refer to directory entries that are fundamentally different from the one represented by OU=DCE , unlike in CDS or the UNIX file system.

Thus, in the name string

/C=US/O=OSF/OU=DCE

the element C=US refers to a one-level-down Country entry whose value is US, then to a two-levels-down Organization entry whose value is OSF, and then to a three-levels-down Organization Unit entry whose value is DCE. Concatenating these elements results in a valid path of entries from the directory root to the DCE entry. The entry itself is the namespace sign to a GDS directory object that contains binding information for the /.../C=US/O=OSF/OU=DCE cell.

More:

An Example GDS Namespace

The GDS Schema

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