Re: REPLACE with no values.

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

At 03:15 PM 5/30/00 -0600, Jeff Romine wrote:
>When I do a replace on an attribute with no values against
>slapd  v1.2.10, I get a protocol error.   The LDAP v3 specification
>says that a replace with no values should delete the attribute, but
>the v2 spec isn't as clear.   IMO, it would be better if the behavior
>was the same.  What do you think?

LDAPv2 servers have historically returned an error if given
a modify/replace with no values.  This is consistent with RFC
1777 and the reference implementations, U-Mich slapd and
ldapd.  I believe it is expected LDAPv2 behavior.

LDAPv3 (syntax and) semantics differ from LDAPv2, hence
the version number change.  Implementations of either
(or both) protocol should adhere to the applicable
Standard Track specifications.

But more to the point, changing OpenLDAP LDAPv2 server
implementation will may introduce compatibility problems
with existing, LDAPv2 conformant clients.  Backwards
compatibility with existing deployments of LDAPv2 is
a major design consideration for OpenLDAP 1.x
(and beyond).

Kurt