Passing an empty attribute list to LDAP:SEARCH retrieves all attributes

[luismbo]

I was using `ldap:search' to figure whether some user exists in a given directory using this code:

(ldap:search conn `(and (= :uid ,some-user)) :attributes nil)

Somewhat unexpectedly, this seems to retrieve all attributes, because I'm getting this error:

Probably a binary field: jpegPhoto
   [Condition of type TRIVIAL-LDAP:PROBABLY-BINARY-FIELD-ERROR]

My workaround is to pass some dummy attribute name to the attributes argument, but it seems like nil should work there. Am I doing something wrong?

[rwiker]

nil means "everything", and is the same as not passing the :attributes argument. If you want to indicate no attributes, you could/should specify '("1.1"), which is reserved for this use (I think).

It might be a good idea to change this in trivial-ldap; for example, by making 't mean all attributes, and 'nil mean none, or possibly let 'nil mean everything (as it does now) and map :none to the list '("1.1").

[luismbo]

FWIW, coming from someone that knows very little about LDAP, t for all and nil for none/'("1.1") makes sense!