bind

In computer programming, to bind is to make an association between two or more programming objects or value items for some scope of time and place. Here are some usages:

1) In general, when a program is compiled, to bind is to substitute a real for a variable value in the program or to ensure that additional programming will be loaded into storage along with the compiled program.

2) When a server application is started, it issues a bind request to TCP/IP to indicate that it is ready to listen to (receive) client application requests from the Internet that are associated with a specified IP address . (Using the C programming language, the request is specified in a bind( ) function request.)

3) In IBM's Systems Network Architecture ( SNA ), to bind is to set up a session between two logical units (LUs) or network end points prior to communicating.

4) In using Remote Procedure Call ( RPC ), to bind is to locate the remote server application to which a client application can make requests. This is often done by accessing a centrally-maintained directory of the names of accessible network server applications.

5) An earlier program that did "binding" so that different programs that called each other knew each other's addresses in memory was called a linkage editor .