mod_ldap/util_ldap Issues...

[Jess Holle <je...@ptc.com>]

I've been struggling with mod_ldap / util_ldap for some time now.  The 
module is basically working on Windows (and HP Apache has it working 
with the worker MPM on HPUX), but I've been utterly failing on Solaris (8).

There are a good number of open bugs on this module.  I updated to 
2.0.48 + the latest sources from CVS in hopes that the most critical of 
these issues would be resolved.

Unfortunately, I find that my Apache always crashes with core dump on 
the very first attempt to authenticate against LDAP *if* I leave the 
LDAP cache activated.  If I disable the LDAP cache, then LDAP 
authentication appears to work fine (in quick, light testing -- no 
stress testing yet).

I don't have any reasonable debugger on the machine in question, so I 
just threw in some quick debug output.  What is interesting to me is 
that util_ldap_cache_module_kill is called during the Apache startup 
process.  This strikes me as highly suspicious and a possible cause of 
the latter crashes when attempting to access the LDAP cache -- but I 
could clearly be barking up the wrong tree.

It is hard for me to believe that no one else in the Apache community 
needs LDAP authentication on Solaris.  It is also hard for me to believe 
that I'm the only one seeing the issue -- especially given the fact that 
there are open bugs on this....

Unfortunately, this is just the "showstopper" issue.  Other issues include:

    * connections staying bound as wrong user preventing reliable
      non-anonymous access to LDAP
    * crashes when LDAP cache size is exceeded (i.e. when cache purge is
      attempted)
          o *may* be fixed in HEAD -- I last tested in 2.0.47
    * crashes on Windows when LDAP cache shared memory block is full
          o *may* be fixed in HEAD -- I last tested in 2.0.47

Is the community giving up on the Apache groups' Apache 2 LDAP modules 
and using some other party's modules for this?

I know there are some few individuals working hard on this area, but the 
open bugs in this area and severity thereof attest to a lack of 
cross-platform stability.  I also know this is an "experimental" module, 
but it is one that some of us desparately need...

--
Jess Holle