In a CPL context, what purposes do transactions serve?

In a CPL (Cascade Policy Language) context, transactions serve to expose request and response state, facilitate user authentication, and maintain policy decisions. This means that during the processing of requests and responses through the proxy, transactions help manage the flow of information by keeping track of important states, such as what actions were taken on the incoming request and what the response was supposed to be.

The concept of exposing request and response state allows for detailed visibility and control over the information being processed. This is critical for making informed decisions based on the current state of the transaction. User authentication is often required in order to validate the identities of users and determine their access rights. By maintaining policy decisions within a transaction context, it ensures that consistent and applicable rules are applied, leading to enhanced security and compliance throughout the network.

The other choices cover aspects of network operations but do not accurately reflect the primary functions of transactions in the CPL context as outlined. For example, while establishing connections and logging traffic are important, they are not the main objectives of transactions specifically. Similarly, compiling policies and filtering traffic, though relevant in network management, do not represent the core duties of transactions in terms of exposing states, handling authentication, and upholding policy decisions.