To slash or not to slash (Was: Last Call on namedref)

["Kurt D. Zeilenga" <Kurt@OpenLDAP.org>]

At 06:53 PM 5/7/01, Mark C Smith wrote:
>2) Section 6 (Named Subordinate References): Here and in other places in
>the document it is noted that the server MAY omit the DN part of the URL
>in certain circumstances.  But consider the following two LDAP URLs:
>
>    a)  ldap://hostb/
>    b)  ldap://hostb
>
>The first one (a) is an LDAP URL that includes a zero length DN, i.e.,
>it points to the root DSE or the "root of all roots" on hostb.  The
>second (b) is an LDAP URL that does not include a DN.

While I would argue a) and b) are equivalent in any particular
context (2255, referrals, references, ref value), I do agree that
RFC 2251/2255 is ambiguous.

To avoid this ambiguity, the solution is to require an explicit
DN in the returned LDAP URL (and to view an absent or empty
DN part in a ref attribute as implying the DN of the referral
object).

Kurt