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Re: Null Valued Attributes



I may have mis-stated my original problem a little, I didn't make a distinction
between the value "null" and an attribute without a value.  My problem was in
importing an LDIF file from Netscape Directory server.  There are many attributes with
no value assigned.  I have since found in rfc2251, para 4.1.8 the following text...

"An attribute consists of a type and one or more values of the type.  (Though
attributes MUST have at least one value when stored, due to access control
restrictions the set may be empty when transferred in protocol......)"

The bottom line is that the standard does not allow an attribute to be added to the
database without an assigned value.  OpenLDAP appears to operate correctly in this
regard.  Netscape Directory Server allows attributes to be added without assigned
values (which appears to be in conflict with the rfc).  I have one application that is
causing these entries to be added.  I'll see what I can do to modify the code to make
it comply.

Dan

"Kurt D. Zeilenga" wrote:

> At 12:12 PM 3/13/01 +0100, Stephane Boisson wrote:
> >Kurt D. Zeilenga wrote:
> >> At 08:44 PM 3/9/01 -0500, Dan Cushing wrote:
> >> >Is there a specific syntax I can use that will allow a null value to be saved?
> >>
> >> Many syntaxes, such as octetString, allow empty values.
> >
> >Where this kind of information can be found?
> >The RFC2252 don't provide very much information about syntaxes.. :-(
>
> Yes... you really need to refer to ITU documents such
> as X.520 and X.680.
>
> Kurt