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What Does De-Reference Mean?
Hi -
The interpretation of the LDAP RFCs as regards dereferencing has become an
issue for the new certification program that The Open Group plans to launch
for LDAP servers. We have discussed it in the Directory Interoperability
Forum, and agreed that we should ask the experts in the ldapbis group.
Accordingly, I would like to ask your help in clarifying this issue.
Here's the issue. The requirement in the specification is:
When a server receives a search request with the derefAliases field
set to derefInSearching then it will dereference aliases in
subordinates
of the base object in searching.
We have a test suite for use in the certification program. The suite
includes a test of this requirement (which is in fact derived from a test
in BLITS). The test data includes two entries: Jonathan Adams and Jonny
Adams. The Jonny Adams entry is an alias for Jonathan Adams.
The test should check that Jonny Adams is de-referenced and Jonathan Adams
is returned. The question is, should the test search for Jonny or for
Jonathan.
RFC 2251 does not explain dereferencing but defers to X.501. Unfortunately,
X.501 does not seem to explain it very well. My personal interpretation
after reading it is that, whenever a server encounters an alias entry in
the course of a search and dereferencing has been requested, the server
should dereference the alias and carry on searching from the entry that the
alias points to. Under this interpretation, a search for Jonny should
return the same result as a search for Jonathan - the Jonathan Adams entry.
I don't claim to be an expert on the interpretation of the specifications -
but I hope that experts in the IETF community can shed light on this!
Please send your comments to the ldapbis list. I will report the consensus
(assuming that one is reached) to the DIF.
Regards,
Chris
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Dr. Christopher J. Harding
T H E Executive Director for the Directory Interoperability Forum
O P E N Apex Plaza, Forbury Road, Reading RG1 1AX, UK
G R O U P Mailto:c.harding@opengroup.org Phone: +44 118 902 3018
WWW: http://www.opengroup.org Mobile: +44 774 063 1520
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