Node:Protocol Notation, Next:, Up:Protocol Requests


Protocol Notation

The heading for each call looks something like this: 

create-person-old [5] (1) Obsolete (10)

The heading consists of several parts:

The name: create-person-old
This is the name of the call. The name is not considered part of the protocol. It may change in future versions of this document. Since the name is never sent over the network it doesn't matter that much.
The call number: [5]
The call number is what really matters, since it is sent over the network. It will never change.
Introduced: (1)
The protocol version when the call was first implemented. Some calls added more functionality in a later protocol version. The description for those calls describes such changes.
The status: Obsolete
The status of the call (see below).
Made obsolete: (10)
This figure is only present for some obsolete calls, and it states in which protocol version the call was obsoleted.

The status of a call can be any of:

Experimental
The call is experimental. No client should rely on the existence of this call. Experimental calls that are useful will usually become recommended in future versions.
Recommended
The call is a standard call. Clients are recommended to use these calls rather than experimental or obsolete ones. Servers are required to implement all recommended calls.
Obsolete
The call should no longer be used by clients. Servers should implement these, or they will be incompatible with old client versions. Please note: the documentation for the obsolete calls may be incomplete. Many of them perform compatibility magic to ensure that they never return anything that old clients don't expect. This compatibility magic is often documented, but we may have forgotten to document it in some places.

A note about the examples: The examples consist of a number of calls and replies. Extra newlines are sometimes inserted in the examples to avoid overly long lines.