Re: S/W request: add flag to LDAPSEARCH to identify version (ITS# 971)

[jimd@dutton3.it.siu.edu]

The issue isn't so much as output compatibility as the problem of
KNOWING which LDAPSEARCH will be used at any given time, and KNOWING
what output to expect or can be requested. On one machine, I have three
different LDAPSEARCH modules: vendor installed, Netscape DS V4.12, and
OpenLDAP-2.0.7. There should be an OpenLDAP-1.2.7 LDAPSEARCH "laying
around" somewhere as well.

What I was asking for was a switch that could be used that would tell me
(the script) what output to expect without any prior knowlege of any
particular LDAPSEARCH module. Having a simple switch and LDAPSEARCH
one-line response would then let the script know that it needs to
either, a) abort all pending input and resubmit the search request with
a different set of switches if it "knows" that it can request the output
data in a particular format that it can handle, or b) use different code
to handle the different output format.

Having an "identity switch" would also allow other vendors to make
unique changes to their output that could be determined by the one-line
response from such an "identity switch". Compatibility is nice, but
doesn't do much good if the script doesn't know anything about the
LDAPSEARCH module being used.


On 18 Jan, Kurt D. Zeilenga wrote:
> At 11:17 PM 1/18/01 +0000, jimd@dutton3.it.siu.edu wrote:
>>Full_Name: Jim Dutton
>>Version: 2.0.7
>>OS: FreeBSD-4.1, Solaris-2.8, NetBSD-1.4.2
>>URL: ftp://ftp.openldap.org/incoming/
>>Submission from: (NULL) (131.230.6.142)
>>
>>
>>Well, now that LDAPSEARCH under OpenLDAP-2.0.7 has radically
>>changed its output from UMich-3.3, OpenLDAP-1.2.x, and
>>Netscape-3/4 (ie; full LDIF format and extra informational
>>lines), it would be a good idea to provide some kind of simple
>>mechanism that can be used to easily identify the version
>>and source implementation of LDAPSEARCH so scripts can easily
>>determine whether they are going to have to alter their data
>>parsing.
> 
> Output compatibility with other versions of search
> tools is provided.  You can use this to specify LDIFv1
> (-L) or U-Mich 3.3/OpenLDAP 1.2 LDIF (-P 2 -LLL).
> 
> Most vendors provide output in LDIF (v1 and/or U-Mich)
> format as well, though options to enable it might be
> different.