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# Log file

The Naming Service is often part of the bootstrapping process of other CORBA programs. For this reason, if an instance of omniNames crashes (or the machine on which it runs is rebooted), it is important that certain aspects of its operation persist upon restarting. Firstly the root context of the Naming Service should always be accessible through the same object reference. This helps the ORB to implement the `resolve_initial_references` call by allowing the object reference to be stored in a configuration file, for example. Secondly, the naming graph with all its bindings should persist between invocations.

To achieve this, omniNames generates a log file, to which it writes out an entry every time a change is made to the naming graph. The directory in which this log file is written can be specified with the `OMNINAMES_LOGDIR` environment variable. When omniNames is restarted it uses the log file so that it can regenerate the naming graph.

Periodically the log file is checkpointed, removing unnecessary operations from the log file. The idle time between checkpoints can be set with the `OMNINAMES_ITBC` environment variable. It defaults to 15 minutes.