Subject: Revised LDIF internet draft - LAST CALL

From: [email-masked] (Gordon Good)
Date: Mon, 18 Oct 1999 14:36:34 -0700

Greetings, everyone,

I've just submitted the latest revision of the LDIF document to the
internet drafts editor. This latest revision addresses some concerns raised
about the BNF. This new version uses the RFC2234 ABNF, rather than the
older RFC822 ABNF. It also makes less use of prose descriptions of grammar
constructs. Comments are welcome and encouraged.

I'd like to wrap this draft up and submit it as a proposed standard
very soon, so I'd like to make this a last call. The document's been through
six revisions now, and a previous last call, so it's received quite a bit
of review. If you have comments, I'd like to have them by November 1st.
I think that should give those of you working to meet the 10/22 draft deadline
a little time to read it over.

Thanks,

-Gordon

LDAP Data Interchange Format (LDIF)                         Gordon Good
INTERNET-DRAFT                                  Netscape Communications
Status: Standards-Track                                 19 October 1999

   The LDAP Data Interchange Format (LDIF) - Technical Specification
                 Filename: draft-good-ldap-ldif-05.txt

Status of this Memo

   This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance
   with all provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that
   other groups may also distribute working documents as
   Internet-Drafts.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six
   months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other
   documents at any time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-
   Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as
   "work in progress."

   To view the list Internet-Draft Shadow Directories, see
   http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html.

   This Internet Draft expires 19 April, 2000.

Abstract

   This document describes a file format suitable for describing
   directory information or modifications made to directory information.
   The file format, known as LDIF, for LDAP Data Interchange Format, is
   typically used to import and export directory information between
   LDAP-based directory servers, or to describe a set of changes which
   are to be applied to a directory.

Background and Intended Usage

   There are a number of situations where a common interchange format is
   desirable.  For example, one might wish to export a copy of the
   contents of a directory server to a file, move that file to a
   different machine, and import the contents into a second directory
   server.

   Additionally, by using a well-defined interchange format, development

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   of data import tools from legacy systems is facilitated.  A fairly
   simple set of tools written in awk or perl can, for example, convert
   a database of personnel information into an LDIF file. This file can
   then be imported into a directory server, regardless of the internal
   database representation the target directory server uses.

   The LDIF format was originally developed and used in the University
   of Michigan LDAP implementation.  The first use of LDIF was in
   describing directory entries.  Later, the format was expanded to
   allow representation of changes to directory entries.

   Relationship to the application/directory MIME content-type:

   The application/directory MIME content-type [1] is a general
   framework and format for conveying directory information, and is
   independent of any particular directory service.  The LDIF format is
   a simpler format which is perhaps easier to create, and may also be
   used, as noted, to describe a set of changes to be applied to a
   directory.

   The key words "MUST", "MAY", and "SHOULD" used in this document are
   to be interpreted as described in [7].

Definition of the LDAP Data Interchange Format

   The LDIF format is used to convey directory information, or a
   description of a set of changes made to directory entries.  An LDIF
   file consists of a series of records separated by line separators.  A
   record consists of a sequence of lines describing a directory entry,
   or a sequence of lines describing a set of changes to a directory
   entry.  An LDIF file specifies a set of directory entries, or a set
   of changes to be applied to directory entries, but not both.

   There is a one-to-one correlation between LDAP operations that modify
   the directory (add, delete, modify, and modrdn), and the types of
   changerecords described below ("add", "delete", "modify", and
   "modrdn" or "moddn").  This correspondence is intentional, and
   permits a straightforward translation from LDIF changerecords to
   protocol operations.

Formal Syntax Definition of LDIF

   The following definition uses the augmented Backus-Naur Form
   specified in RFC 2234 [2].

   ldif-file                = ldif-content / ldif-changes

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   ldif-content             = version-spec 1*(1*SEP ldif-attrval-record)

   ldif-changes             = version-spec 1*(1*SEP ldif-change-record)

   ldif-attrval-record      = dn-spec SEP 1*attrval-spec

   ldif-change-record       = dn-spec SEP *control changerecord

   version-spec             = "version:" FILL version-number

   version-number           = 1*DIGIT
                              ; version-number MUST be "1" for the
                              ; LDIF format described in this document.

   dn-spec                  = "dn:" (FILL distinguishedName /
                                     ":" FILL base64-distinguishedName)

   distinguishedName        = SAFE-UTF8-STRING
                              ; a distinguished name, as defined in [3]

   base64-distinguishedName = BASE64-UTF8-STRING
                              ; a distinguishedName which has been base64
                              ; encoded (see note 10, below)

   rdn                      = SAFE-UTF8-STRING
                              ; a relative distinguished name, defined as
                              ; <name-component> in [3]

   base64-rdn               = BASE64-UTF8-STRING
                              ; an rdn which has been base64 encoded (see
                              ; note 10, below)

   control                  = "control:" FILL ldap-oid        ; controlType
                              0*1(1*SPACE ("true" / "false")) ; criticality
                              0*1(value-spec)                 ; controlValue
                              SEP
                              ; (See note 9, below)

   ldap-oid                 = 1*DIGIT 0*1("." 1*DIGIT)
                              ; An LDAPOID, as defined in [4]

   attrval-spec             = AttributeDescription value-spec SEP

   value-spec               = ":" (    FILL 0*1(SAFE-STRING) /
                                   ":" FILL (BASE64-STRING) /
                                   "<" FILL url)
                              ; See notes 7 and 8, below

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   url                      = <a Uniform Resource Locator, as defined in [6]>
                                      ; (See Note 6, below)

   AttributeDescription     = AttributeType [";" options]
                              ; Definition taken from [4]

   AttributeType            = ldap-oid / (ALPHA *(attr-type-chars))

   options                  = option / (option ";" options)

   option                   = 1*opt-char

   attr-type-chars          = ALPHA / DIGIT / "-"

   opt-char                 = attr-type-chars

   changerecord             = "changetype:" FILL
                              (change-add / change-delete /
                               change-modify / change-moddn)

   change-add               = "add"                SEP 1*attrval-spec

   change-delete            = "delete"             SEP

   change-moddn             = ("modrdn" / "moddn") SEP
                               "newrdn:" (    FILL rdn /
                                          ":" FILL base64-rdn) SEP
                               "deleteoldrdn:" FILL ("0" / "1")  SEP
                               0*1("newsuperior:"
                               (    FILL distinguishedName /
                                ":" FILL base64-distinguishedName) SEP)

   change-modify            = "modify"             SEP *mod-spec

   mod-spec                 = ("add:" / "delete:" / "replace:")
                              FILL AttributeDescription SEP
                              *attrval-spec
                              "-" SEP

   SPACE                    = %x20
                              ; ASCII SP, space

   FILL                     = *SPACE

   SEP                      = (CR LF / LF)

   CR                       = %x0D
                              ; ASCII CR, carriage return

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   LF                       = %x0A
                              ; ASCII LF, line feed

   ALPHA                    = %x41-5A / %x61-7A
                              ; A-Z / a-z

   DIGIT                    = %x30-39
                              ; 0-9

   UTF8-1                   = %x80-BF

   UTF8-2                   = %xC0-DF UTF8-1

   UTF8-3                   = %xE0-EF 2UTF8-1

   UTF8-4                   = %xF0-F7 3UTF8-1

   UTF8-5                   = %xF8-FB 4UTF8-1

   UTF8-6                   = %xFC-FD 5UTF8-1

   SAFE-CHAR                = %x01-09 / %x0B-0C / %x0E-7F
                              ; any value <= 127 decimal except NUL, LF, and CR

   SAFE-INIT-CHAR           = %x01-09 / %x0B-0C / %x0E-1F /
                              %x21-39 / %x3B / %x3D-7F
                              ; any value <= 127 except NUL, LF, CR,
                              ; SPACE, colon (":", ASCII 58 decimal)
                              ; and less-than ("<" , ASCII 60 decimal)

   SAFE-STRING              = [SAFE-INIT-CHAR *SAFE-CHAR]

   SAFE-UTF8-CHAR           = SAFE-CHAR / UTF8-2 / UTF8-3 /
                              UTF8-4 / UTF8-5 / UTF8-6

   SAFE-INIT-UTF8-CHAR      = SAFE-INIT-CHAR / UTF8-2 / UTF8-3 /
                              UTF8-4 / UTF8-5 / UTF8-6

   SAFE-UTF8-STRING         = [SAFE-INIT-UTF8-CHAR *SAFE-UTF8-CHAR]

   BASE64-UTF8-STRING       = BASE64-STRING
                              ; MUST be the base64 encoding of a valid
                              ; string of UTF-8 characters

   BASE64-CHAR              = %x2B / %x2F / %x30-39 / %x3D / %x41-5A / %x61-7A
                              ; +, /, 0-9, =, A-Z, and a-z
                              ; as specified in [5]

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   BASE64-STRING            = [*(BASE64-CHAR)]

   Notes on LDIF Syntax

   1) For the LDIF format described in this document, the version number
   MUST be "1". If the version number is absent, implementations MAY
   choose to interpret the contents as an older LDIF file format,
   supported by the University of Michigan ldap-3.3 implementation [8].

   2) Any non-empty line, including comment lines, in an LDIF file MAY
   be folded by inserting a line separator (SEP) and a SPACE.  Folding
   MUST NOT occur before the first character of the line. In other
   words, folding a line into two lines, the first of which is empty, is
   not permitted. Any line that begins with a single space MUST be
   treated as a continuation of the previous (non-empty) line. When
   joining folded lines, exactly one space character at the beginning of
   each continued line must be discarded. Implementations SHOULD NOT
   fold lines in the middle of a multi-byte UTF-8 character.

   3) Any line that begins with a pound-sign ("#", ASCII 35) is a
   comment line, and MUST be ignored when parsing an LDIF file.

   4) Any dn or rdn that contains characters other than those defined as
   "SAFE-UTF8-CHAR", or begins with a character other than those defined
   as "SAFE-INIT-UTF8-CHAR", above, MUST be base-64 encoded.  Other
   values MAY be base-64 encoded.  Any value that contains characters
   other than those defined as "SAFE-CHAR", or begins with a character
   other than those defined as "SAFE-INIT-CHAR", above, MUST be base-64
   encoded.  Other values MAY be base-64 encoded.

   5) When a zero-length attribute value is to be included directly in
   an LDIF file, it MUST be represented as AttributeDescription ":" FILL
   SEP.  For example, "seeAlso:" followed by a newline represents a
   zero-length "seeAlso" attribute value.  It is also permissible for
   the value referred to by a URL to be of zero length.

   6) When a URL is specified in an attrval-spec, the following
   conventions apply:
      a) Implementations SHOULD support the file:// URL format.  The
         contents of the referenced file are to be included verbatim
         in the interpreted output of the LDIF file.
      b) Implementations MAY support other URL formats.  The semantics
         associated with each supported URL will be documented in
         an associated Applicability Statement.

   7) Distinguished names, relative distinguished names, and attribute
   values of DirectoryString syntax MUST be valid UTF-8 strings.

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   Implementations that read LDIF MAY interpret files in which these
   entities are stored in some other character set encoding, but
   implementations MUST NOT generate LDIF content which does not contain
   valid UTF-8 data.

   8) Values or distinguished names that end with SPACE SHOULD be base-
   64 encoded.

   9) When controls are included in an LDIF file, implementations MAY
   choose to ignore some or all of them. This may be necessary if the
   changes described in the LDIF file are being sent on an LDAPv2
   connection (LDAPv2 does not support controls), or the particular
   controls are not supported by the remote server. If the criticality
   of a control is "true", then the implementation MUST either include
   the control, or MUST NOT send the operation to a remote server.

   10) When an attrval-spec, distinguishedName, or rdn is base64-
   encoded, the encoding rules specified in [5] are used with the
   following exceptions:  a) The requirement that base64 output streams
   must be represented as lines of no more than 76 characters is
   removed. Lines in LDIF files may only be folded according to the
   folding rules described in note 2, above.  b) Base64 strings in [5]
   may contain characters other than those defined in BASE64-CHAR, and
   are ignored. LDIF does not permit any extraneous characters, other
   than those used for line folding.

Examples of LDAP Data Interchange Format

   Example 1: An simple LDAP file with two entries

   version: 1
   dn: cn=Barbara Jensen, ou=Product Development, dc=airius, dc=com
   objectclass: top
   objectclass: person
   objectclass: organizationalPerson
   cn: Barbara Jensen
   cn: Barbara J Jensen
   cn: Babs Jensen
   sn: Jensen
   uid: bjensen
   telephonenumber: +1 408 555 1212
   description: A big sailing fan.

   dn: cn=Bjorn Jensen, ou=Accounting, dc=airius, dc=com
   objectclass: top
   objectclass: person
   objectclass: organizationalPerson

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   cn: Bjorn Jensen
   sn: Jensen
   telephonenumber: +1 408 555 1212

   Example 2: A file containing an entry with a folded attribute value

   version: 1
   dn:cn=Barbara Jensen, ou=Product Development, dc=airius, dc=com
   objectclass:top
   objectclass:person
   objectclass:organizationalPerson
   cn:Barbara Jensen
   cn:Barbara J Jensen
   cn:Babs Jensen
   sn:Jensen
   uid:bjensen
   telephonenumber:+1 408 555 1212
   description:Babs is a big sailing fan, and travels extensively in sea
    rch of perfect sailing conditions.
   title:Product Manager, Rod and Reel Division

   Example 3: A file containing a base-64-encoded value

   version: 1
   dn: cn=Gern Jensen, ou=Product Testing, dc=airius, dc=com
   objectclass: top
   objectclass: person
   objectclass: organizationalPerson
   cn: Gern Jensen
   cn: Gern O Jensen
   sn: Jensen
   uid: gernj
   telephonenumber: +1 408 555 1212
   description:: V2hhdCBhIGNhcmVmdWwgcmVhZGVyIHlvdSBhcmUhICBUaGlzIHZhbHVlIGlzIGJ
    hc2UtNjQtZW5jb2RlZCBiZWNhdXNlIGl0IGhhcyBhIGNvbnRyb2wgY2hhcmFjdGVyIGluIGl0ICh
    hIENSKS4NICBCeSB0aGUgd2F5LCB5b3Ugc2hvdWxkIHJlYWxseSBnZXQgb3V0IG1vcmUu

   Example 4: A file containing an entries with UTF-8-encoded attribute
   values, including language tags.  Comments indicate the contents
   of UTF-8-encoded attributes and distinguished names.

   version: 1
   dn:: b3U95Za25qWt6YOoLG89QWlyaXVz
   # dn:: ou=<JapaneseOU>,o=Airius
   objectclass: top
   objectclass: organizationalUnit
   ou:: 5Za25qWt6YOo
   # ou:: <JapaneseOU>

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   ou;lang-ja:: 5Za25qWt6YOo
   # ou;lang-ja:: <JapaneseOU>
   ou;lang-ja;phonetic:: 44GI44GE44GO44KH44GG44G2
   # ou;lang-ja:: <JapaneseOU_in_phonetic_representation>
   ou;lang-en: Sales
   description: Japanese office

   dn:: dWlkPXJvZ2FzYXdhcmEsb3U95Za25qWt6YOoLG89QWlyaXVz
   # dn:: uid=<uid>,ou=<JapaneseOU>,o=Airius
   userpassword: {SHA}O3HSv1MusyL4kTjP+HKI5uxuNoM=
   objectclass: top
   objectclass: person
   objectclass: organizationalPerson
   objectclass: inetOrgPerson
   uid: rogasawara
   mail: [email-masked]
   givenname;lang-ja:: 44Ot44OJ44OL44O8
   # givenname;lang-ja:: <JapaneseGivenname>
   sn;lang-ja:: 5bCP56yg5Y6f
   # sn;lang-ja:: <JapaneseSn>
   cn;lang-ja:: 5bCP56yg5Y6fIOODreODieODi+ODvA==
   # cn;lang-ja:: <JapaneseCn>
   title;lang-ja:: 5Za25qWt6YOoIOmDqOmVtw==
   # title;lang-ja:: <JapaneseTitle>
   preferredlanguage: ja
   givenname:: 44Ot44OJ44OL44O8
   # givenname:: <JapaneseGivenname>
   sn:: 5bCP56yg5Y6f
   # sn:: <JapaneseSn>
   cn:: 5bCP56yg5Y6fIOODreODieODi+ODvA==
   # cn:: <JapaneseCn>
   title:: 5Za25qWt6YOoIOmDqOmVtw==
   # title:: <JapaneseTitle>
   givenname;lang-ja;phonetic:: 44KN44Gp44Gr44O8
   # givenname;lang-ja;phonetic::
   <JapaneseGivenname_in_phonetic_representation_kana>
   sn;lang-ja;phonetic:: 44GK44GM44GV44KP44KJ
   # sn;lang-ja;phonetic:: <JapaneseSn_in_phonetic_representation_kana>
   cn;lang-ja;phonetic:: 44GK44GM44GV44KP44KJIOOCjeOBqeOBq+ODvA==
   # cn;lang-ja;phonetic:: <JapaneseCn_in_phonetic_representation_kana>
   title;lang-ja;phonetic:: 44GI44GE44GO44KH44GG44G2IOOBtuOBoeOCh+OBhg==
   # title;lang-ja;phonetic:: <JapaneseTitle_in_phonetic_representation_kana>
   givenname;lang-en: Rodney
   sn;lang-en: Ogasawara
   cn;lang-en: Rodney Ogasawara
   title;lang-en: Sales, Director

   Example 5: A file containing a reference to an external file

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   version: 1
   dn: cn=Horatio Jensen, ou=Product Testing, dc=airius, dc=com
   objectclass: top
   objectclass: person
   objectclass: organizationalPerson
   cn: Horatio Jensen
   cn: Horatio N Jensen
   sn: Jensen
   uid: hjensen
   telephonenumber: +1 408 555 1212
   jpegphoto:< file:///usr/local/directory/photos/hjensen.jpg

   Example 6: A file containing a series of change records and comments

   version: 1
   # Add a new entry
   dn: cn=Fiona Jensen, ou=Marketing, dc=airius, dc=com
   changetype: add
   objectclass: top
   objectclass: person
   objectclass: organizationalPerson
   cn: Fiona Jensen
   sn: Jensen
   uid: fiona
   telephonenumber: +1 408 555 1212
   jpegphoto:< file:///usr/local/directory/photos/fiona.jpg

   # Delete an existing entry
   dn: cn=Robert Jensen, ou=Marketing, dc=airius, dc=com
   changetype: delete

   # Modify an entry's relative distinguished name
   dn: cn=Paul Jensen, ou=Product Development, dc=airius, dc=com
   changetype: modrdn
   newrdn: cn=Paula Jensen
   deleteoldrdn: 1

   # Rename an entry and move all of its children to a new location in
   # the directory tree (only implemented by LDAPv3 servers).
   dn: ou=PD Accountants, ou=Product Development, dc=airius, dc=com
   changetype: modrdn
   newrdn: ou=Product Development Accountants
   deleteoldrdn: 0
   newsuperior: ou=Accounting, dc=airius, dc=com

   # Modify an entry: add an additional value to the postaladdress attribute,
   # completely delete the description attribute, replace the telephonenumber
   # attribute with two values, and delete a specific value from the

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   # facsimiletelephonenumber attribute
   dn: cn=Paula Jensen, ou=Product Development, dc=airius, dc=com
   changetype: modify
   add: postaladdress
   postaladdress: 123 Anystreet $ Sunnyvale, CA $ 94086
   -
   delete: description
   -
   replace: telephonenumber
   telephonenumber: +1 408 555 1234
   telephonenumber: +1 408 555 5678
   -
   delete: facsimiletelephonenumber
   facsimiletelephonenumber: +1 408 555 9876
   -

   # Modify an entry: replace the postaladdress attribute with an empty
   # set of values (which will cause the attribute to be removed), and
   # delete the entire description attribute. Note that the first will
   # always succeed, while the second will only succeed if at least
   # one value for the description attribute is present.
   dn: cn=Ingrid Jensen, ou=Product Support, dc=airius, dc=com
   changetype: modify
   replace: postaladdress
   -
   delete: description
   -

   Example 7: An LDIF file containing a change record with a control
   version: 1
   # Delete an entry. The operation will attach the LDAPv3
   # Tree Delete Control defined in [9]. The criticality
   # field is "true" and the controlValue field is
   # absent, as required by [9].
   dn: ou=Product Development, dc=airius, dc=com
   control: 1.2.840.113556.1.4.805 true
   changetype: delete

Security Considerations

   Given typical directory applications, an LDIF file is likely to
   contain sensitive personal data.  Appropriate measures should be
   taken to protect the privacy of those persons whose data is contained
   in an LDIF file.

   Since ":<" directives can cause external content to be included when
   processing an LDIF file, one should be cautious of accepting LDIF

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   files from external sources.  A "trojan" LDIF file could name a file
   with sensitive contents and cause it to be included in a directory
   entry, which a hostile entity could read via LDAP.

   LDIF does not provide any method for carrying authentication
   information with an LDIF file.  Users of LDIF files must take care to
   verify the integrity of an LDIF file received from an external
   source.

Appendix A: Differences from previous versions of this document

   This section summarizes the differences between previous revisions of
   this draft, as an aid to document reviewers. This section will be
   deleted prior to publication as an RFC.

   Differences between draft-ietf-asid-ldif-00.txt and draft-ietf-asid-
   ldif-01.txt

   1) The BNF has been modified to explicitly disallow ldif content and
   change records in the same file.  In other words, a given LDIF file
   is either a series of directory entries, or a series of
   modifications.  An LDIF file MUST NOT contain both types of records.

   2) External references are now URLs, instead of simple filenames.

   3) The BNF has been modified to allow base-64-encoded distinguished
   names.

   4) Multiple separators are now permitted between records.

   Differences between draft-ietf-asid-ldif-01.txt and draft-ietf-asid-
   ldif-02.txt

   1) The BNF has been modified such that a simple attribute name
   ("attrname") has been replaced with an "attribute-description" as
   defined in the LDAPv3 protocol document [4].  This permits language
   codes and other attribute options to be carried in an LDIF file.

   2) A new option, "charset", may be used in attribute descriptions.
   This facilitates multi-lingual character set conversion.

   3) The definition of the "safe" and "safe-initval" productions has
   been relaxed to allow non-ASCII characters with values greater than
   126.  This permits more natural expression of character sets such as
   Latin-1 in LDIF files.

   Differences between draft-ietf-asid-ldif-02.txt and draft-good-ldap-
   ldif-00.txt

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   1) The "charset-option" and "charset-name" productions were removed
   from the BNF, due to objections within the working group.  UTF-8 is
   the only character set that may be used in LDIF.

   2) Examples were reworked to reflect the above change, and to include
   an example of a non-western language represented in UTF-8.

   Differences between draft-ietf-good-ldif-00.txt and draft-good-ldap-
   ldif-01.txt

   1) Added version identifiers to the examples - they were missing.

   2) Clarified that LDIF files must use UTF-8.

   Differences between draft-good-ldap-ldif-01.txt and draft-good-ldap-
   ldif-02.txt

   1) Added a recommendation that values ending in SPACE should be
   base-64 encoded.

   2) Clarified the procedure for joining folded lines.

   3) Updated header to reflect new IETF I-D guidelines.

   Differences between draft-good-ldap-ldif-02.txt and draft-good-ldap-
   ldif-03.txt

   1) Fixed reference from RFC 1779 to RFC 2253.

   2) Version string is now required.

   3) Comment lines may be folded (this is now explicitly mentioned in
   note 2).

   4) Moved this section (differences between draft versions) to an
   appendix.

   5) Updated examples to use "dc=airius, dc=com" instead of "o=Ace
   Industry, c=US"

   6) Cleaned up references section.

   Differences between draft-good-ldap-ldif-03.txt and draft-good-ldap-
   ldif-04.txt

   1) The grammar now requires that an LDIF file end with one or more
   SEP sequences (newlines). This was inadvertently prohibited in
   earlier revisions of the grammar.

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   2) Several minor spelling and typographical errors were fixed.

   3) Reworked the grammar to make it more readable. Hallvard Furuseth
   (University of Oslo) provided the new BNF.

   4) Excluded NUL from "safe" production.

   5) Changed "0,1*xxx" "0*1xxx" in compliance with RFC822.

   6) Fixed a glitch in the grammar that allowed multiple changetypes
   within a single LDIF change record. The intent is that only one
   changetype per change record is permitted.

   7) Fixed a mistake in example 2 (folded attribute value).

   8) The BNF now explicitly requires that zero-length attribute values
   be encoded as attribute-description ":" FILL SEP.

   9) Factored "changetype: FILL" out of the productions for change-add,
   change-delete, change-moddn, and change-modify.

   10) RFC 2251 permits an LDAP modify operation with no modifications,
   and also permits an attribute with no values. Although it's unclear
   what the purpose of these constructs might be, I altered the BNF to
   allow these to be described in LDIF.

   11) The BNF may now carry LDAP v3 controls in ldif-change-records.
   The "value-spec" production was factored out to allow it to be used
   in the definition of a control.

   12) Clarified the rules for line-folding to prohibit a line from
   being folded into two lines, the first of which is empty. This
   guarantees that the sequence SEP SEP terminates an LDIF record, and
   allows, for example, "perl -n00" to be used to read an entire LDIF
   record into the $_ variable.

   Differences between draft-good-ldap-ldif-04.txt and draft-good-ldap-
   ldif-05.txt

   1) The grammar has been rewritten to use the RFC2234 ABNF, replacing
   the RFC822 ABNF.

   2) The grammar makes fewer uses of <prose-val>.

   3) DNs, RDNs, and attribute values with DirectoryString are now
   explicitly called out as UTF-8 strings.

   4) An error in the BNF for "control" was fixed.

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   5) An additional ldif-change-record was added to example 6.

   6) Since RFC 1521 defines base-64 encoding with different folding
   rules, and permits illegal characters (which should be ignored), an
   explanatory note has been added. This note explains that lines must
   be folded according to LDIF rules, not RFC 1521 rules, and that
   extraneous characters are not permitted.

   7) DNs, values, and rdns containing octets > 127 must be base-64
   encoded.

Acknowledgments

   The LDAP Interchange Format was developed as part of the University
   of Michigan LDAP reference implementation, and was developed by Tim
   Howes, Mark Smith, and Gordon Good.  It is based in part upon work
   supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No.  NCR-
   9416667.

   Members of the IETF LDAP Extensions Working group provided many
   helpful suggestions. In particular, Hallvard B. Furuseth of the
   University of Oslo made many significant contributions to this
   document, including a thorough review and rewrite of the BNF.

References

   [1]  Howes, T., Smith, M., "A MIME Content-Type for Directory Infor-
        mation", RFC 2425, September 1998,
        <URL:http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2245.txt>

   [2]  Crocker,  D., Overell, P., "Augmented BNF for Syntax Specifica-
        tions: ABNF" , RFC 2234, November 1997,
        <URL:http://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfc2234.txt>

   [3]  Wahl, M., Kille, S., Howes, T., "A String Representation of Dis-
        tinguished Names", RFC 2253,
        <URL:http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2253.txt>

   [4]  Wahl, M., Howes, T., Kille, S., "Lightweight Directory Access
        Protocol (v3)", RFC 2251, July, 1997,
        <URL:ftp://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2251.txt>

   [5]  Borenstein, N., Freed, N., "MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail
        Extensions) Part One: Mechanisms for Specifying and Describing
        the Format of Internet Message Bodies", section 5.2, "Base64
        Content-Transfer-Encoding", RFC 1521, December 1993,

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        <URL:http://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfc1521.txt>

   [6]  T. Berners-Lee,  L.  Masinter, M. McCahill, "Uniform Resource
        Locators (URL)", RFC 1738, December 1994,
        <URL:http://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfc1738.txt>

   [7]  S. Bradner, "Key Words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement
        Levels", Harvard University, RFC 2119, March 1997,
        <URL:http://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfc2119.txt>

   [8]  The SLAPD and SLURPD Administrators Guide.  University of Michi-
        gan, April 1996.  <URL:
        http://www.umich.edu/~dirsvcs/ldap/doc/guides/slapd/toc.html>

   [9]  M. P. Armijo, "Tree Delete Control", Microsoft Corporation,
        INTERNET-DRAFT June 1999, <URL:http://www.ietf.org/internet-
        drafts/draft-armijo-ldap-treedelete-01.txt>

Author's Address

        Gordon Good
        Netscape Communications Corp.
        501 E. Middlefield Rd.
        Mailstop MV068
        Mountain View, CA 94043, USA
        Phone:  +1 650 937-3825
        EMail:  [email-masked]

                  This Internet Draft expires 19 April, 2000.

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