Handling spaces in DNs

[simo]

On Thu, 2007-10-25 at 13:31 +1000, Andrew Bartlett wrote:
> On Wed, 2007-10-24 at 08:27 -0400, simo wrote:
> > On Wed, 2007-10-24 at 15:40 +1000, Andrew Bartlett wrote:
> > > The work done a while back to limit how often we parsed and unparse a DN
> > > has had an unusual side-effect, that I would like some assistance in
> > > solving.
> > > 
> > > If we add a DN of the form:
> > > 
> > > cn=admins ,cn=users,dc=samba,dc=example,dc=org
> > > 
> > > Then the DN will remain in the database in that form, including the
> > > extra space around "admins".
> > 
> > This is just a bug, spaces at the end of the RDN components should just
> > be removed.
> > 
> > >   For maximum retention of information,
> > > while retaining a normalised form, it should be added like:
> > > 
> > > CN=admins,CN=users,DC=samba,DC=example,DC=org
> > > 
> > > Do we need to add a 'normalised DN' function to LDB, or override the
> > > current linearized form?  Would doing so negate the speed benefits that
> > > created this approach in the first place?
> > 
> > It depends how we add it and where.
> > 
> > > I'm hitting this in the ldap.js test, which now actually tests this
> > > area.  I've had to comment out the assert for now, see the attached
> > > patch. 
> > 
> > I will try to carve some time to fix this, please remind me if you don't
> > see anything by the end of the week.
> 
> The other thing we need to do is ensure that the DN is formed in the
> same case as the parents.  Ie, if the parents are:
> 
> CN=Users,DC=samba4,DC=abartlet,DC=net
> 
> Then we shouldn't allow a DN of
> CN=Admins,DC=uSeRs,DC=samba4,DC=abartlet,DC=NET
> 
> This falls out naturally if your DB doesn't actually include it's
> parents by name, but otherwise I think we should normalise this. 

At this point I am seriously considering making sure we always
canonicalize it before storing it. Unless there is some braindamage core
MMC application that rely on some case being maintained this is the
natural way to go.

Simo.

-- 
Simo Sorce
Samba Team GPL Compliance Officer <simo at samba.org>
Senior Software Engineer at Red Hat Inc. <ssorce at redhat.com>