Re: (ITS#5916) Allow alias dereferencing in search C API

[hyc@symas.com]

ando@sys-net.it wrote:
> h.b.furuseth@usit.uio.no wrote:
>> ando@sys-net.it writes:
>>> Proxy backends use ldap_set_option(3) to set alias dereferencing when
>>> requested by a search operation (and do not clean it up afterwards, as
>>> far as I can tell).  Since LDAP handlers are pooled and reused, this
>>> behavior is inherently broken.
>> I note you committed this with an ldap_int_* interface.
>
> Yes, that's because I needed it internally.

I think ldap_pvt would make more sense.

I recall complaining about this deficiency in the API back in 1998, when I 
first wrote back-ldap. Alias deref has always been a part of the protocol, but 
it has always been missing from the API. Perplexing...

>> But it could
>> be useful outside OpenLDAP code too.
>
> Yes, that will probably be the next step.  But to make it publicly
> available I should have called it ldap_search_ext2, or
> ldap_search_really_ext or something like that.  I think we need to make
> it public based on demand and after a ballot on the name.

Ok.

>> Seems to me this is what client-side controls are for.  Extending the
>> client-side functionality without needing a new API.
>
> Well, since alias dereferencing is part of the protocol, I think using a
> client-side control is sort of an overkill :)

Agreed.

-- 
   -- Howard Chu
   CTO, Symas Corp.           http://www.symas.com
   Director, Highland Sun     http://highlandsun.com/hyc/
   Chief Architect, OpenLDAP  http://www.openldap.org/project/