Related Services: Registration and Lookup Path
There are two services in DCE that are distinct from, but related to, the DCE Directory Service. The first is registration. In naming an object in a distributed system, it is useful to have a unique name for the object. DCE provides a facility for generating Universal Unique Identifiers (UUIDs), which are used to name DCE objects such as RPC interfaces, users, and computing resources. More information on UUIDs is contained in the RPC topics of the OSF DCE Application Development Guide - Core Components.
A second service that is related to directory service is the ability to specify a path through the directory service for looking up names. In DCE, this capability is provided by RPC profiles. Profiles can be used, for example, to look up names relative to a certain location. If a user wants to look up a printer based on the printer's proximity to the user, for example, a profile may specify that a directory service lookup for a printer begin in the local cell, then if a printer is not found, look in the two neighboring cells, and so on. For more information on RPC Profiles, see the RPC topics of the OSF DCE Application Development Guide - Core Components.