Every NDS request is composed in an NDS buffer which is then sent to a server participating on the target NDS tree to be handled. NDS buffers are defined as Buf_T.

The definition for a Buf_T data structure is shown below:

 
 typedef struct

 {

    nuint32   operation ;  // DSV_READ, DSV_SEARCH, etc.

    nuint32   flags ;	 	 	 	 

    nuint32   maxLen ;

    nuint32   curLen ;

    pnuint8   lastCount ;

    pnuint8   curPos ;  // the currently selected data component
    pnuint8   data ; // the buffer data

 } Buf_T;

The data portion on an initialized NDS buffer has a very precise construction. For example, in the case of searching for object attributes, NDS would return a DSV_SEARCH operation type buffer that has been initialized with found object and attribute data components in the data portion. There can be only one data component selected at a time, so the buffer must be read sequentially, one data component at a time.

getInitNDSBuffer( ) is the general routine (shown below) that is used throughout these examples to allocate and initialize NDS buffers for various purposes.

The large numbers refer to explanations after the code listing.