RFC 3674 (rfc3674) - Page 1 of 5
Feature Discovery in Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
Network Working Group K. Zeilenga
Request for Comments: 3674 OpenLDAP Foundation
Category: Standards Track December 2003
Feature Discovery in Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)
Status of this Memo
This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2003). All Rights Reserved.
Abstract
The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is an extensible
protocol with numerous elective features. This document introduces a
general mechanism for discovery of elective features and extensions
which cannot be discovered using existing mechanisms.
1. Background and Intended Use
The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) [RFC 3377] is an
extensible protocol with numerous elective features. LDAP provides
mechanisms for a client to discover supported protocol versions,
controls, extended operations, Simple Authentication and Security
Layer (SASL) mechanisms, and subschema information. However, these
mechanisms are not designed to support general feature discovery.
This document describes a simple, general-purpose mechanism which
clients may use to discover the set of elective features supported by
a server. For example, this mechanism could be used by a client to
discover whether or not the server supports requests for all
operational attributes, e.g., "+" [RFC 3673]. As another example,
this mechanism could be used to discover absolute true, e.g., "(&)"
and false, e.g., "(|)", search filters [T-F] support.
This document extends the LDAP Protocol Mechanism registry [RFC 3383]
to support registration of values of the supportedFeatures attribute.
This registry is managed by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
(IANA).
Zeilenga Standards Track