ldapmodify/LDIF problem.

[Martin Evans <m.d.t.evans@qmw.ac.uk>]

Hello all,

We may have discovered a bug with the the interpretation of the
changetype replace mode of the LDIF file format used by the ldapmodify
command line tool. And would like some advice.

The problem is illustrated by the with following LDIF:

dn: cn=A Person, ou=my dept, o=The College, c=GB
changetype: modify
replace: mail
-

The book `LDAP - Programming Directory-Enabled Applications with
Lightweight Directory Access Protocol' (Howes & Smith, MacMillan 
1997) claims that if the "replace: mail" line is not followed by any
attribute lines (e.g. mail: m.person@college.ac.uk). It is meant to
delete any mail attribute in the directory entry and not generate an
error if they do not exist. It does not do so - in fact it does not
change the entry or generate an error.

We dont want to use the delete: method as this generates an error if the
attribute is not in the entry.

Is the books interpretation of LDIF correct? Is there a current LDIF
specification (RFC?) available (preferably on the web - for free).

I've modified a local version of the ldapmodify.c from the 1.2.3
distribution to impliment this behavior as it is useful to our LDAP
implimentation. However, the only  way I could prevent `Constraint
voliation' errors being returned was to replace and delete a null the
attribute from entry. e.g. When no replace: attribute lines have been
read in I call

	       addmodifyop( &pmods, LDAP_MOD_REPLACE, value, NULL,0 );
	       addmodifyop( &pmods, LDAP_MOD_DELETE, value, NULL,0 );

Your opinions would be apreciated.

Cheers,
Martin.

--- M.D.T.Evans - Computing Services - Queen Mary & Westfield College ---