3.11 PROSPERO

The Prospero URL scheme is used to designate resources that are accessed via the Prospero Directory Service. The Prospero protocol is described elsewhere [14].

A prospero URLs takes the form:

      prospero://<host>:<port>/<hsoname>;<field>=<value>

where <host> and <port> are as described in Section 3.1. If :<port> is omitted, the port defaults to 1525. No username or password is allowed.

The <hsoname> is the host-specific object name in the Prospero protocol, suitably encoded. This name is opaque and interpreted by the Prospero server. The semicolon ";" is reserved and may not appear without quoting in the <hsoname>.

Prospero URLs are interpreted by contacting a Prospero directory server on the specified host and port to determine appropriate access methods for a resource, which might themselves be represented as different URLs. External Prospero links are represented as URLs of the underlying access method and are not represented as Prospero URLs.

Note that a slash "/" may appear in the <hsoname> without quoting and no significance may be assumed by the application. Though slashes may indicate hierarchical structure on the server, such structure is not guaranteed. Note that many <hsoname>s begin with a slash, in which case the host or port will be followed by a double slash: the slash from the URL syntax, followed by the initial slash from the <hsoname>. (E.g., <URL:prospero://host.dom//pros/name> designates a <hsoname> of "/pros/name".)

In addition, after the <hsoname>, optional fields and values associated with a Prospero link may be specified as part of the URL. When present, each field/value pair is separated from each other and from the rest of the URL by a ";" (semicolon). The name of the field and its value are separated by a "=" (equal sign). If present, these fields serve to identify the target of the URL. For example, the OBJECT-VERSION field can be specified to identify a specific version of an object.