Subject: Root naming context

From: "Jim Sermersheim" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2000 14:53:53 -0700

Novell's implementation of LDAP allows one to root a naming context at the root of the tree. For example, you could have a DIT that looks like this:

<root of tree>     \  (naming context 1)
|                   | 
+-cn=schema         | 
+-o=administration  |
| +<entries>       /
+-c=US             \  (naming context 2)
| +<entries>       /
+-c=AU             \  (naming context 3)
  +<entries>       /

Where the root of the tree, the schema, and the o=administration container all fit into naming context 1. This is possible because we have an actual entry at the root of the tree which we can attach the nameContext auxilliary class to (described in the arch and info model doc's). Thie only slightly quirky thing is that this entry is not named. This tends to work out quite well with the way LDAP is defined however. The namingContexts attribute in the root DSE can (and many times does) contain a zero length DN which names the root of the tree as a naming context root. It also comes in handy when assigning ACLs which are to inherit down the entire hierarchy.

What I'm wondering (read: lack of ambition to do my own research) is whether this unnamed root entry will cause problems when replicating with other directories. Or in other words, do/will other LDAP directories allow this?

Jim