Re: Named Referrals Questions.

[David Chadwick <d.w.chadwick@salford.ac.uk>]

Date forwarded: 	Mon, 12 Jul 1999 15:14:00 -0700 (PDT)
Date sent:      	Mon, 12 Jul 1999 18:15:03 -0400
From:           	Leonid Dubinsky <dub@shym.com>
Organization:   	Shym Technology Inc
To:             	ietf-ldapext@netscape.com
Subject:        	Named Referrals Questions.
Forwarded by:   	ietf-ldapext@netscape.com

> Dear LDAPEXTers!
> 
> Here are some questions/suggestions I have concerning
> "draft-ietf-ldapext-namedref-00.txt".
> Thank you in advance for your comments/clarifications.
> 
> 
> QUESTION 1.
> 
> The draft seems to imply that objects with a 'ref' attribute can have
> subordinate objects with a 'ref' attribute. This can be used to make
> subordinate referrals more specific. Mark Smith confirms that this is the
> idea. I think this should be more explicit in the text.
> 

Agreed. YOu should be able to have a ref to c=us and one to 
c=us,o=bigco immediately beneath each other. Nothing wrong with 
this.

> 
> QUESTION 2.
> 
> The draft seems to also imply that objects with a 'ref' attribute can have
> "normal" subordinate objects held by the same server. This can be used to
> make superior referrals smart, i.e. to keep superior referrals for each
> naming context held by the server in an object superior to that naming
> context.
> 

Can we use correct terminology here please. Immediately superior 
references (from X.518) are references which point to the naming 
context immediately superior to the one held in this server (your so-
called smart superior references). They are no smarter than any 
other type of reference, they are just another sort of reference. And 
superior references (which are proxies for the root of the DIT) can 
point to different servers than the immediately superior references.
If you want a full description of all the types of references that are 
defined in X.518 i,e. subordinate, superior, immediately superior, 
cross and non-specific subordinate you should read chapter9 of my 
book (url below). I have  include most of these in my knowledge ID 
which is just about to be published.

> For example, if a server holds two naming contexts:
> 
>  ou=abc, o=xyz, c=us and
>  dc=subd, dc=acme, dc=com
> 
> it can hold objects with the following dns that contain a 'ref'
> attribute with the superior reference:
> 
>  o=xyz, c=us
>  dc=com.
> 
> Such "smart" superior references can be used to provide referrals more

These are exactly analogous to immediately superior references 
from X.518.

> specific (and meaningful) than the default superior reference held in the
> root DSE.
> 
> Mark Smith said: "I don't think that the idea of using referral entries to
> provide more accurate superior references is discussed or implied by the
> draft... perhaps it should be." He suggested to raise this idea on the
> list. I do so now.

I agree with you that these references are useful. It will be a trivial 
matter to add then to my knowledge ID that is about to be published.

David

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David Chadwick
IS Institute, University of Salford, Salford M5 4WT
Tel +44 161 295 5351  Fax +44 161 745 8169
Mobile +44 790 167 0359
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Home Page  http://www.salford.ac.uk/its024/chadwick.htm
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