Re: Referral & Alias

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

At 09:27 PM 10/11/00 +0800, Simon Yuen wrote:
>Q1. What are the difference between alias and referral?

An alias in a entry which provides alternative naming for an
object entry.  A referral is an entry which provides a reference
to another service.  The alias and the aliased object generally
must be held by the same service (within the same naming context).
The aliased object is specified (in the alias) by its distinguished
name.

A referral can be reference any service (including the current
service)... in fact, the service could require use of a different
access protocol.  The reference is specified as a URI, generally
an LDAP URI.

One could say that a referral is a more general knowledge reference.

>Q2. If I search the entity in the same directory in the localhost, which one should I choose? Is alias better?

Depends upon your server choice and what you are trying to accomplish.

>Q3. If alias are used in localhost directory, doesn't it need to make any connection to the server like referral?   

If the alias and aliased object are held by the same server, then
that server should be able to process the aliasing.  If the aliased
object is not hend by the same server, normally an aliasing error
will be reported to the client.