Data Acquisition (DAQ) and Control from Microstar Laboratories

Knowledge Base: Applications

Q10015 DAP addressing with UNC

Tags: Help, DAP, DAPL, application, handle, access, networking

Applies to: All applications using DAPIO32 interface

The manual for my application environment says that the paths to DAPs are specified using UNC naming. What is this?

UNC stands for Universal (Uniform, or Unified) Naming Convention. This is a proprietary notation used for accessing objects on a Microsoft network. It is an alternative to standard URI file:/// notations for locating objects on local networks.

Briefly, the UNC syntax is:

   \\<computer>\<resource>\<object>
  • The "computer" can be a domain name server or a server host name.

  • When the notation "." is substituted for the computer name, this means the device space in the local machine, where the DAP devices are identified.

  • The "resource" can be a device or file system share. For a DAP, the resource is the name of the DAP.

  • The "object" is typically a sequence of directory path names, separated by back-slashes, and optionally ending with a file name. For the case of a DAP device, it is the name of the DAP channel to access.

For example:

\\.\dap0\$sysout

Access the DAPL system text message output channel from dap0 on the local host machine



\\PC77\dap1\$binout

Access the DAPL system binary measurement output channel from dap1 on the remote machine PC77

L23942

2.2.1.4 UNC Path as defined in the MSDN Library