Re: SIZELIMIT 0 gives a zero limit

[Pierangelo Masarati <ando@sys-net.it>]

Fabio Pedretti wrote:
> Citando Gavin Henry <ghenry@suretecsystems.com>:
>
> > ----- "Fabio Pedretti" <fabio.pedretti@ing.unibs.it> wrote:
> >
> > > The ldap.conf man page says this:
> > >
> > > SIZELIMIT <integer>
> > > Specifies a size limit to use when performing searches.  The number
> > > should  be  a
> > > non-negative  integer. SIZELIMIT of zero (0) specifies unlimited
> > > search size.
> > >
> > > However it appears that putting "SIZELIMIT 0" in my ldap.conf gives
> > > a:
> > > # search result
> > > search: 2
> > > result: 4 Size limit exceeded
> > >
> > > To workaround this I put a very large value and it works. I am using
> > > openldap 2.4.11 compiled from source on a Slackware 10.0. Is it an
> > > openldap bug?
> >
> > Do you have any limits on your slapd config?
>
> OK, I found the problem.
>
> In my slapd.conf I had
> sizelimit 0
> which appears to be wrong. In this case SIZELIMT 0 in ldap.conf gives 
> zero records, SIZELIMIT 1 gives 1 records, etc...
>
> Changing slapd.conf to:
> sizelimit unlimited
> works correctly.
>
> This behaviour is somewhat strange, however:
> 1) "sizelimit" in slapd.conf and "SIZELIMIT" options in ldap.conf are 
> not coherent (the first want "unlimited", the latter "0" to specify no 
> limits);

Correct.  They do not need to be coherent:  SIZELIMIT 0 refers to an 
unlimited sizelimit as per RFC 4511.  sizelimit 0 is private to slapd, a 
specific DSA implementation's configuration, whose semantics requires to 
be able to specify both an unlimited size limit and a 0 size limit (e.g. 
to prevent specific users from receiving any entry).

> 2) when "sizelimit 0" is defined in slapd.conf the behaviour appears to 
> be undefined (it works fine only if you use a different than "0" value 
> for SIZELIMIT in ldap.conf); it should print an error or at least a 
> warning when set to "0", since this not means "no limits" (or even 
> better "0" could be changed to means "unlimited" also here and also 
> reflected in man page of slapd.conf).

What seems to be an inconsistency, is actually intended (and documented, 
AFAIK).  In fact, "sizelimit 0" sets the soft limit, while the hard 
limit remains the default (500).  Probably, "sizelimit X" should set both.

p.


Ing. Pierangelo Masarati
OpenLDAP Core Team

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