A profile entry specifies a search path or hierarchy of search paths to be followed through the namespace in order to obtain a binding to a server that offers a specified interface.
When a client imports from an entry that happens to be a profile, successive imports (accomplished by calling rpc_ns_binding_import_next( )) return the contents of entries that are read as a result of following the specified path through the namespace. All this is transparent to the client, which sees only the bindings returned. Profiles can be used to set up default paths and groups of paths for users. The RPC_DEFAULT_ENTRY_NAME environment variable, which is the default entry name used by the name service in import operations, usually contains the name of a profile.
As with groups, the entries contained in profiles, which are called elements, exist independently of the profile entry itself.
A very important property of profiles is that they allow clients to know little or nothing about the organization of the namespace itself. Using the default case as an example, consider the following: if the profile at RPC_DEFAULT_ENTRY_NAME has been set up with elements containing entries for all possible active servers for a particular application, clients can simply import from this name and trust the profile mechanism to walk through the various compatible possibilities and return binding handles via successive calls to rpc_ns_binding_import_next( ). (Note that a profile entry is not limited to containing entries for just one interface; thus, RPC_DEFAULT_ENTRY_NAME could be set up to contain all the defaults for a cell.)