Creating an alias from a child entry to the ancestor causes an error (return code 36)

• Key: DIRSERVER-803
• Type: Bug
• Status: Open
• Priority: Major
• Assignee: Alex Karasulu
• Reporter: Stefan Zoerner
• Component/s: core
• Affects Version/s: 1.5.1, 1.5.0, 1.0.2, 1.0.1, 1.0
• Fix Version/s: 2.0.0-RC1

Environment

* ApacheDS 1.0.0
* Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.5.0_07-b03)
* Windows XP Professional SP2

Description

It fails to import the following two entries into ApacheDS 1.0 (default server.xml).
The second entry is an alias to the first one, and is directly located below the first entry:

dn: ou=Singers,dc=example,dc=com
ou: Singers
objectclass: top
objectclass: organizationalUnit

dn: ou=Songwriters,ou=Singers,dc=example,dc=com
ou: Songwriters
objectclass: top
objectclass: organizationalUnit
objectclass: alias
aliasedobjectname: ou=Singers,dc=example,dc=com

Here is the result I got from an ldapmodify attempt:

$ ldapmodify -h localhost -p 10389 -D "uid=admin,ou=system" -w ****** -q -c -a -f aliasSingers.ldif
ldap_add: Unknown error
ldap_add: additional info: failed to add entry ou=Songwriters,ou=Singers,dc=example,dc=com: [36] aliasDereferencingProblem - attempt to create alias with cycle to relative ou=Singers,dc=example,dc=com not allowed from descendent alias 2.5.4.11=songwriters,2.5.4.11=singers,0.9.2342.19200300.100.1.25=example,0.9.2342.19200300.100.1.25=com

It seems that ApacheDS does not allow to create an alias from a descendant. I tried the same with Tivoli Directory Server 6.0 and Sun Java System Directory Server 5.2, both allowed this constellation.

Find attached a JNDI JUnit test which is able to cause the error by adding two entries programmatically.