Names of Object Identifiers

[Steve Kille <S.Kille@isode.com>]

This message sets out an interpretation of the LDAP standards, and a
suggestion for clarification.

Object Classes and Attribute Types in LDAP are identified by an Oject
Identifier and an optional descriptive string.   LDAP recommends that
the string is used in protocol.

In general, when an OID is encountered it is not possible to determine
what sort of thing the OID represents, although you sometimes can.   

We have been testing interoperability with a system which used the
SAME string for an attribute type and an object class.   Both sides of
the testing agreed that this was a bad idea.   

It can be argued that the LDAP specification makes this illegal.   It
is clear to me that it should be illegal.

I suggest that a clarification is added to the next revision of LDAP
(RFF 2252 Section 4.1), that notes that the "descr" string MUST be
unique for an LDAP server.  


Steve Kille