Re: Precedence of Error Result Codes

["Jim Sermersheim" <JIMSE@novell.com>]

Kurt,

I agree that there are error codes that don't fall into the error
groupings in X.11, and as this part of the protocol is extendible, more
will follow. 

I think the word 'simultaneously' doesn't convey the intended meaning.
There are times when multiple problems could exist for an operation
(say, invalidAttributeSyntax and noSuchObject). So if we intend to talk
about multiple errors, I think we should choose a different term (like
multiple).

As error groupings seems unneeded, and not really fit well, we should
probably either drop the groupings, or mention them informationally in
passing. I prefer the former.

Similarly, I'm not sure what problem we're solving by stating that the
most serious error should be reported when multiple errors exist. This
statement leaves the definition of "most serious" hanging undefined. I
think it's sufficient to state that while multiple errors may exist for
an operation, only a single error is returned. Any indication that one
error is to be returned over another begs us to catagorize, or weight
each error, and doing this probably won't add much value to the
protocol.

Jim


>>> "Kurt D. Zeilenga" <Kurt@OpenLDAP.org> 03/08/02 08:22PM >>>
I think we need to avoid prescribing the precedence of result codes.
The primary reason for this is that LDAP has a number of LDAP
specific result codes which don't fit well into the precedence
levels established in X.511.  Also, "if the server detects multiple
errors simultaneously, the server SHOULD report the error with the
highest precedence" doesn't mean much because multiple error
conditions are rarely "simultaneously" detected.  Also, SHOULD
here is unnecessary.  A client cannot expect that a server detect
errors conditions in any particular order, hence there is no
reason to RECOMMEND an order.

I recommend s/and Precedence// in section title, s/precedence of//
in pp 1 of A.3 and replacement of pp 2 with:
 
  Server implementations SHALL NOT continue processing an operation
  after it has determined that an error is to be reported.  If the
  server detects multiple errors simultaneously, the server should
  report the most serious error.  The server should return the result
  code which is best indicates the nature of the error being reported.

Also, a section header should be inserted between this and the
result codes.