What is an IOR file, what does it do, and how does it work?

Question

I believe it is related to CORBA in some way (I'm not sure). I'm curious as to its function and how it works. Google isn't helping me when I search for "IOR file", and I'm not sure what else I could search for. Thanks to anyone who can at least point me in the right direction with available resources.

Answer 1

An IOR file is a file which contains an Interoperable Object Reference which is a kind of a locator string. The IOR file itself contains the IOR. The IOR is an CDR encoded string which, depended on the CORBA version, contains various information regarding the servant who created this string. But basically it works as a locator string.

Inside the IOR normally an IP, portnumber and object reference of the servant could be found.

In a simple hello world example the servant (server) will create this file. The client reads this file and the client ORB (Object Request Broker) will delegate the call from the client to the servant transparently.

All about CORBA: OMG CORBA Website or just visit Wikipedia