Re: Allowing users to add, but not delete, entries?

[Howard Chu <hyc@symas.com>]

Gervase Markham wrote:
> On 03/03/11 15:33, Howard Chu wrote:
> > Note that a "Guide" is not a reference manual; it is not intended to be
> > complete or exhaustive.
>
> I'm not sure this use of terminology is universal; here is a
> counter-example:
> http://www.bugzilla.org/docs/tip/en/html/

It's certainly been the norm for Unix at least. E.g., compare the Guides vs 
Reference Manuals in the Solaris documentation.

http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E19253-01/index.html

Or the 4BSD system documentation:

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/faq/bibliography.html

Material in the 4BSD User's Supplementary Documents and Programmer's 
Supplementary Documents was a bit more friendly in prose, but only explained 
the approach to how to use the system. The details of each command or function 
are only found in the Reference Manuals.

> > It's only intended to provide an overview; the
> > detailed/exhaustive docs are always the manpages.
>
> I would suggest that neither:
> http://www.openldap.org/doc/
> nor
> http://www.openldap.org/doc/admin24/preface.html
> nor the individual pages in the Admin Guide give the impression either
> that the Admin Guide is not complete, or that the manual pages are an
> essential read or the canonical reference.
>
> Perhaps it would help OpenLDAP users if this were made a little more clear?

The preface.html which you linked above clearly states:

>>>>
Scope of this Document

This document provides a guide for installing OpenLDAP Software 2.4 
(http://www.openldap.org/software/) on UNIX (and UNIX-like) systems. The 
document is aimed at experienced system administrators with basic 
understanding of LDAP-based directory services.

This document is meant to be used in conjunction with other OpenLDAP 
information resources provided with the software package and on the project's 
site (http://www.OpenLDAP.org/) on the World Wide Web. The site makes 
available a number of resources.

...
<<<<

And then goes on to list various other resources. The Manual Pages, of course 
are the most obvious information resource provided directly with the software, 
and in Unix they are traditionally the authoritative reference. Given the 
heritage of this project it seems obvious to me that this is how the docs 
would be structured. If the phrase "meant to be used in conjunction" isn't a 
strong enough hint that the Guide is not a standalone document, please feel 
free to suggest an alternate or stronger wording. Note that the preface also 
invites you to do the same.

> Thank you for your help and support :-)

Thank you for your feedback. We're always listening.

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