incarnation-identifier · unknown

Incarnation identifier

An incarnation identifier distinguishes successive instances of a process, machine or service whose local identifiers may otherwise be reused.

Birrell and Nelson's RPC design carries a conversation identifier alongside the call sequence number to distinguish restarted caller instances. Its remote-binding identifier separately addresses restarted servers. [1]

An identifier separates instances; it does not by itself order their operations or authenticate them. Storage recovery still needs the relevant identity, history and ordering contract. [2]

Relations

related
Serial number arithmetic, Transaction ID wraparound, Lost write

Citations

  1. Birrell and Nelson. Implementing Remote Procedure Calls (1984), section 3.2, pp. 50-51 (accessed 2026-10-18)
  2. Hesela: ordering storage generations across counter wrap (accessed 2026-10-18)
Sources & caveats
  • The cited mechanism is an RPC design, not a filesystem specification. The storage connection is an explanatory analogy. [1] [2]

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Hesela team. Incarnation identifier. Hesela. 2026-10-18. https://hesela.dev/terms/incarnation-identifier/