Formal definition of LDAPOID values

["Jim Sermersheim" <JIMSE@novell.com>]

This is the proposal to add a formal ABNF for the value of LDAPOID to section 4.1.2 of the protocol specification. Currently, there is only an example in this section to be used as a reference for the actual string encoding. The intent of this ABNF is to clairify, using a formal definition, as well as to be a reference for other areas in the specification needing to refer to the string representation of LDAPOID.

The proposed change is this:

<The LDAPOID is a notational convenience to indicate that the permitted value of this string is a (UTF-8 encoded) dotted-decimal representation of an OBJECT IDENTIFIER.
<
<LDAPOID ::= OCTET STRING
<
<For example,
<
<1.3.6.1.4.1.1466.1.2.3

>The LDAPOID is a notational convenience to indicate that the permitted value of this string is a (UTF-8 encoded) dotted-decimal representation of an OBJECT IDENTIFIER.
>
>LDAPOID ::= OCTET STRING
>
>A value of LDAPOID is based on the following ABNF [RFC2234] (lines wrapped for readability):
>
>	ldapOID = numericstring *( "." numericstring )
>
>	numericstring = 1*( "0" / "1" / "2" / "3" / "4" /
>                          "5" / "6" / "7" / "8" / "9" )
>
>For example,
>
>1.3.6.1.4.1.1466.1.2.3

Potential issues include the fact that the "oid." prefix is not accounted for, and the ABNF does not ensure a valid OID (within the existing OID hierarchy). I don't believe either of these issues are valid.

Is this reasonable, and will it work?

Jim