WG consensus Re: Extensibility of SearchRequest.attributes

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

As co-chair, I have reviewed this thread:
  http://www.openldap.org/lists/ietf-ldapbis/200304/msg00002.html

and draw two conclusions.

1) Concern was raised that the specification makes conflicting
statements regarding AttributeDescriptionList contents.  Consensus
supports clarifying the ASN.1 and related ABNF that an
AttributeDescriptionList is a SEQUENCE of LDAPString where the
LDAPString is either "*" or an <AttributeDescription>.  The editor
should make appropriate changes to address this issue.  Once
made, the WG will be asked to review the changes to ensure they
adequately address this issue.

2) Concern was raised regarding the extensibility of
AttributeDescriptionList to support additional "specials".
Consensus does not support adding text to the LDAP "core" TS
as to how to extend the set of allowed specials.  It should be
noted that the lack of a statement allowing extensions does not
preclude future (or existing) specifications from detailing
such extensions.  It is assume that appropriate care will be
taken in engineering such extensions when and where they are
desirable.  This issue is now considered resolved.

Kurt, LDAPBIS co-chair