Re: Models: Naming Contexts

[John McMeeking <jmcmeek@us.ibm.com>]

Jim Sermersheim wrote:

>From Models 05
>
>>5.1.2. 'namingContexts'
<snip>
>>  If the server believes it masters or shadows the entire
>>  directory, the attribute will have a single value, and that value
will
>>  be the empty string (indicating the null DN of the root).
>
>What if the server is a first level DSA which masters the root of the
>DIT, and also one or more other naming contexts?
>I believe this is a flaw and should be corrected to allow the
>namingContexts attribute to hold values in addition to the empty
>string.

I'm having a hard time with the notion of mastering the root of the DIT
and some other subtree.  Would that be something like:
  namingContexts: <empty string>
  namingContexts: o=my company,c=us
???
If you then create the entry "c=us", would "o=my company,c=us" still be
listed as a namingcontext?

Since "" is not the root of a DIT subtree, perhaps it would be more
appropriate for such servers to return the root entries of subtrees
actually present on the server.  As new subtrees are created, the
namingContexts attribute would be updated accordingly.

I'm trying to think of cases where it would be necessary for the server
to advertise that "c=au" could be added to the directory, but doesn't
yet exist.  It seems more useful in this scenario to only list the subtrees
that have been created.  If the server only holds the subtree "o=my
company,
c=us" I'd still expect that to be present in the namingcontexts attribute
even if the entry doesn't exist.

>Please refer to X.501 Section 18.5
>
>Jim

John McMeeking