RFC 2252 (rfc2252) - Page 2 of 32

Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (v3): Attribute Syntax Definitions

RFC 2252                   LADPv3 Attributes               December 1997


   c. to avoid delaying the advancement and deployment of other Internet
      standards-track protocols which require the ability to query, but
      not update, LDAPv3 directory servers.

   Readers are hereby warned that until mandatory authentication
   mechanisms are standardized, clients and servers written according to
   this specification which make use of update functionality are
   UNLIKELY TO INTEROPERATE, or MAY INTEROPERATE ONLY IF AUTHENTICATION
   IS REDUCED TO AN UNACCEPTABLY WEAK LEVEL.

   Implementors are hereby discouraged from deploying LDAPv3 clients or
   servers which implement the update functionality, until a Proposed
   Standard for mandatory authentication in LDAPv3 has been approved and
   published as an RFC.

2. Abstract

   The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) [1] requires that
   the contents of AttributeValue fields in protocol elements be octet
   strings.  This document defines a set of syntaxes for LDAPv3, and the
   rules by which attribute values of these syntaxes are represented as
   octet strings for transmission in the LDAP protocol.  The syntaxes
   defined in this document are referenced by this and other documents
   that define attribute types.  This document also defines the set of
   attribute types which LDAP servers should support.

3. Overview

   This document defines the framework for developing schemas for
   directories accessible via the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol.

   Schema is the collection of attribute type definitions, object class
   definitions and other information which a server uses to determine
   how to match a filter or attribute value assertion (in a compare
   operation) against the attributes of an entry, and whether to permit
   add and modify operations.

   Section 4 states the general requirements and notations for attribute
   types, object classes, syntax and matching rule definitions.

   Section 5 lists attributes, section 6 syntaxes and section 7 object
   classes.

   Additional documents define schemas for representing real-world
   objects as directory entries.






Wahl, et. al.               Standards Track