Can slapd chase referrals?

Dave Carlson (dave@ontogenics.com)
Sun, 22 Sep 1996 22:43:12 -0600

I'd like to configure slapd to automatically chase referrals, rather
than return a "referral" message containing a URL for another ldap
server. I understand that the common practice is for the client to
chase these referrals instead of the server. However, I'm developing an
LDAP client in Java that would run as an applet, and Java is
specifically prohibited from establishing a connection to any server
other than the one from which it originated. Thus, the slapd server (or
maybe a referral daemon) must do all the chasing.

I've skimmed through the source for ldap v3.3, and it appears that the
slapd server simply checks if one of its backends includes the requested
DN, otherwise returns a referral message to the client. But, a
command-line query from the ldapsearch tool *does* chase referrals.
That logic appears to be part of the client ldap library, not integrated
into the slapd server. Is this correct?

So, the $100 dollar question, how difficult would it be to develop a
variation on the slapd server that included to logic to automatically
chase referrals? Would it be a fairly straight forward matter of
calling and linking in the existing code (maybe the ldap_search()
function?) used in the ldapsearch command? Better yet, has anyone done
this already?

Thanx for any and all input!
Dave Carlson
dcarlson@ontogenics.com
Boulder, Colorado