Re: International chars w/ OpenLDAP+Mail clients

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

This being the general mailing list, I give you a general
answer.

LDAPv3 uses UTF-8 encoded ISO/IEC 10646-1 strings.
LDAPv2 uses T.61 strings.

OpenLDAP 1.x is an implementation of LDAPv2.  It expects T.61.
OpenLDAP 2.x is an implementation of LDAPv3.  It expects UTF-8.
OpenLDAP 2.x also supports LDAPv2 but only correctly if you
restrict strings to IA5 (ASCII).  That is no UTF-8 <-> T.61
conversion is done.

Many LDAPv2 clients and/or their use is broken.  Some send UTF-8
strings, others send Latin1, others send whatever the local
character set is.

With LDAPv3, things are bit better.  However, there are still
clients (or their use) which is broken as they use charsets
other than UTF-8 encoded ISO/IEC 10646-1.

There are no real good answers to the problem.  Fixing LDAPv2
implementations is beyond hope.  LDAPv3 clients for the most
part are fine (if you use them as designed).  Turning off LDAPv2
is generally not workable (yet).

If you are using a LDAPv2 only server, stick with T.61 but
be prepared for migration headaches when you upgrade to a
LDAPv3/LDAPv2 server.

If you are using a LDAPv3 only server, stick to UTF-8.

If you are using a LDAPv3/LDAPv2 server, stick to UTF-8 and
bare with LDAPv2 charset issues until you can upgrade all
clients to LDAPv3 and UTF-8, THEN DISABLE LDAPv2!

Kurt