Re: Referral chasing mistery

[Konstantin Chuguev <Konstantin.Chuguev@dante.org.uk>]

Hi Stig,

Stig Venaas wrote:

> > dn: dc=hil, dc=no
> > objectClass: referral
> > ref: ldap://domino2.hil.no/?
> [...]
> > Fine again. Let's finally ask the the client to chase the referral from
> > the first server:
> > # ldapsearch -H ldap://ldap.uninett.no:389 -s base -b dc=hil,dc=no -x -C
> [...]
> > result: 32 No such object
> >
> > # numResponses: 1
> >
> What happens is that when you follow a referral with no base, you use
> the same base as the original search. So in effect it tries to search
> in the hil server with base dc=hil,c=no while the hil server has empty
> base. hil should really change their base.
>
> Note however that if you for instance do subtree search at dc=no, you
> will get a search continutation reference, and in that case the empty
> base in the reference is used, so you do indeed search in the hil
> server then.
>

I see. I thought that if it is possible to use the URL form both with and
without "/" after the ldap://[host], then ldap://[host] means "same base"
while ldap://[host]/ means "root base". Nothing in the standard actually says
that, and nothing explains the difference between the two forms :-(
And nothing allows to use referrals to root naming contexts with the base
scope then. Which is no good!
Is there any way to save the standard-conformant clients of choking in such
cases? Bet they are not common but still...

    Konstantin.

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