Protocol: referrals and other URIs

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

All,
 
There is the following text regarding referral URIs in the protocol
document:
"Other kinds of URIs may be returned, so long as the operation could be
performed using that protocol."

It's quite likely (actually, it's a reality) that a protocol could
exist which allows some directory operations (like add, modify, and
search), but not others (like modDN).
Even when one considers this language a certain way, two LDAP servers
may not both support the same extended operation.

There is no way a server can know which operations a URI can be applied
to.
There are no forward-looking provisions with which an administrator can
use to convey operation-specific URIs to the server.

I don't think it is within the charter to modify the format of a
referral such that operation-specific knowledge can be built into them.

Thus, I suggest this be dropped or reworded. I can't think of wording
that allows "any URI to be returned, regardless of its protocol's
ability to perform all operations" that wouldn't just remove the need
for the statement. So I suggest dropping it.

Comments?

Jim