In the chapter "3.3. Creating and Maintaining Database Links" the use of quotes is inconsistent, but quotes in LDAP attribute values are significant. See these two examples from that chapter: dn: cn="c=africa,ou=people,dc=example,dc=com",cn=mapping tree,cn=config objectclass=nsMappingTree nsslapd-state=backend nsslapd-backend=DBLink1 nsslapd-parent-suffix: ou=people,dc=example,dc=com cn: c=africa,ou=people,dc=example,dc=com dn: cn="l=Zanzibar,c=africa,ou=people,dc=example,dc=com",cn=mapping tree,cn=config objectclass: top objectclass: extensibleObject objectclass: nsMappingTree nsslapd-state: backend nsslapd-backend: DBLink2 nsslapd-parent-suffix: "c=africa,ou=people,dc=example,dc=com" cn: l=Zanzibar,c=africa,ou=people,dc=example,dc=com The nsslapd-parent-suffix attribute uses quotes in one and no quotes in the other. Also, the cn values should have quotes to match the DN. Mixed use of quotes in node definitions and references sets a bad example to users of the product, and does not work correctly with current versions of Directory Server anyway.
I went through the examples and made sure everything was quoted. Unless I'm reading the engineering bug wrong, it's possible for both quoted and unquoted to work, but I think using the quotes made the docs more clear. So, for example, it should be: dn: cn="l=Zanzibar,c=africa,ou=people,dc=example,dc=com",cn=mapping tree,cn=config objectclass: top objectclass: extensibleObject objectclass: nsMappingTree nsslapd-state: backend nsslapd-backend: DBLink2 nsslapd-parent-suffix: "c=africa,ou=people,dc=example,dc=com" cn: "l=Zanzibar,c=africa,ou=people,dc=example,dc=com" The "cn" and "nsslapd-parent-suffix" attributes are quoted everywhere (well, everywhere appropriate) now in the docs. The 8.1 docs are live; the 8.0 docs will be updated soon. Closing.