Re: Troubles with binary attributes

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

At 02:54 PM 11/3/00 -0800, Steve Collins wrote:
>Hello, 
>    I'm (still) migrating from 1.2 to 2.x.  Today's problem concerns binary attributes.

Note that binary in the context of LDAP doesn't mean arbitrary
binary data, that is an string of octets (bytes) containing
arbitrary data.  That's called an octetString.  In LDAP,
the term binary refers to information described using Abstract
Syntax Notation One (ASN.1) and encoded using the Basic Encoding
Rules (BER).

>I am trying to add binary data from LDIF (from the 1.x directory)
> 
>binattr:: CICAgAiACAiAgAiACAiACAiACICACAgIg.......
> 
>I redefined this attribute like so:
> 
>attributeType  ( 1.3.6.1.4.1.1765.9902 NAME 'binattr'
>   SYNTAX 1.3.6.1.4.1.1466.115.121.1.5 )

Is the value of binattr BER encoded instance of an ASN.1 data type?

> 
>But when I try to add it: 
>ldap_add ......
>dn: ......
>binattr:: CICAgAiACAiAgAiACAiACAiACICACAgIg.......
> 
>I get the following: 
>ldap_modify: Undefined attribute type
>        additional info: attribute requires ;binary transfer

2.0.6 requires ";binary" transfer of the binary syntax.  [This
is actually viewed as a bug by some and a necessary feature by
others].

>==========================================================================
>First, does the  ;binary means I must specify a file (cannot use the LDIF output from 1.2) ?  

No. It means you must provide a BER-encoded value.
s
>Second, the attribute type is defined for this operation, so I guess the "Undefined attribute type" message is misleading, right?

Undefined attribute type result code is a reasonable response for
the server to return if ;binary transfer is required but not
specified.

>Third, must I modify my client code to use "binattr;binary"?

Likely you should define syntax of binattr to be octetString
not binary.

Kurt