Re: Deleting subtree - server side

[Pierangelo Masarati <ando@sys-net.it>]

Arunachalam Parthasarathy wrote:

> Hello,
>
> Can I know the reason why it is not implemented?

Yes.

Basically, it's an operation that is not atomic in pure LDAP (namely, it 
requires more than a write operation), and thus it could be implemented 
in many different ways (I mean: handling errors and conflicts in many 
different ways).  So there should be:

1) a need for it

2) an agreed specification about how to do it

3) someone who codes it.

I recall seeing some old specification (e.g. 
<draft-armijo-ldap-treedelete>, expired 2001).  A much better approach 
would be to use LDAP transactions (e.g. <draft-zeilenga-ldap-txn>) so 
that the operation either fails or succeeds atomically.  In OpenLDAP 
there's experimental support for transactions, but I'm not sure subtree 
deletion can be performed right now.

p.



Ing. Pierangelo Masarati
OpenLDAP Core Team

SysNet s.r.l.
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