Re: Can LDAP attribute values be null?

["Kurt D. Zeilenga" <kurt@boolean.net>]

After thinking about what I had said, I realize that I must
have been incorrect as the specification falls to pieces
if an attribute is allowed to have zero values.   I missed
one key point made in RFC2251:

4.1.8. Attribute
   An attribute consists of a type and one or more values of that 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.  This is described in section 4.5.2, concerning the    
   PartialAttributeList type.)

RFC2251 is unclear as to what a server should do if
handed zero values. (I favor protocolError).

RFC2251 and related specifications could use some clarification
where "1 or more" is required but "SET OF" or "SEQUENCE OF" is used
in the BNF.  I'll note this to LDAPext.

Kurt


----
Kurt D. Zeilenga		<kurt@boolean.net>
Net Boolean Incorporated	<http://www.boolean.net/>