The update Statement

Syntax

update [ <list> ] {
	<server-attribute> <op> <value>
	...
}

The update statement adds attributes to, or edits the attributes in, the named <list>.

The update statement consists of the following syntax elements:

<list>: The attribute list which will be updated. The list is usually request, reply, or control.

If the <list> qualifier is omitted, then each entry inside of the update section must be prefixed with a list name. For example, &request.User-Name …
<server-attribute>: The server attribute which is assigned the <value>.
<op>: The operator such as =, :=, etc.
<value>: The value which is assigned to the attribute. If the field is a double-quoted string, it undergoes string expansion, and the resulting value is assigned to the attribute.

The update process is atomic, in that either all of the attributes are modified, or none of them are modified. If the update fails for any reason, then all of the results are discarded, and the update does not affect any server attributes.

Example

update reply {
   &Reply-Message := "Hello!"
   &Framed-IP-Address := 192.0.2.4
}

Lists

The <list> field sets the attribute list that will be updated. If the <list> qualifier is omitted, then each entry inside of the update section must be prefixed with a list name. For example, &request.User-Name …

Please see the list page for valid list names.

Server Attributes

The <server-attribute> field is an attribute name, such as &Reply-Message. The attribute name may also be prefixed with a <list> qualifier, which overrides the <list> given at the start of the update section.

In version 3, the leading & is optional but recommended.

Editing Operators

The <op> field is used to define how the attribute is processed. Different operators allow attributes to be added, deleted, or replaced, as defined below.

Table 1. Editing Operators
Operator	Description
=	Add the attribute to the list, if and only if an attribute of the same name is not already present in that list.
:=	Add the attribute to the list. If any attribute of the same name is already present in that list, its value is replaced with the value of the current attribute.
+=	Add the attribute to the tail of the list, even if attributes of the same name are already present in the list.
^=	Add the attribute to the head of the list, even if attributes of the same name are already present in the list.
-=	Remove all attributes from the list that match <value>.
!*	Delete all occurances of the attribute, no matter what the value.

Filtering Operators

The following operators may also be used in addition to the ones listed above. These operators use the <server-attribute> and <value> fields to enforce limits on all attributes in the given <list>, and to edit attributes which have a matching <server-attribute> name. All other attributes are ignored.

Table 2. Filtering Operators
Operator	Description
==	Keep only the attributes in the list that match <value>
<	Keep only the attributes in the list that have values less than <value>.
<=	Keep only the attributes in the list that have values less than or equal to <value>.
>	Keep only the attributes in the list that have values greater than <value>.
>=	Keep only the attributes in the list that have values greater than or equal to <value>.
=~	Keep only the attributes in the list which match the regular expression given in <value>.
!~	Keep only the attributes in the list which do not match the regular expression given in <value>.

The == operator is very different from the = operator listed above. The = operator is used to add new attributes to the list, while the == operator removes all attributes that do not match the given value.

The comparison operators <, ⇐, >, and >= have some additional side effects. Any non-matching value is replaced by the <value> given here. If no attribute exists, it is created with the given <value>.

For IP addresses, the operators >, >=, <, and <= check for membership in a network. The <value> field should then be a IP network, given in address/mask format.

Example

update reply {
   &Session-timeout := 86400
}

Example

update reply {
   &Reply-Message += "Rejected: Also, realm does not end with ac.uk"
}

Values

The <value> field is the value which is assigned to the <server-attribute>. The interpretation of the <value> field depends on the data type of the contents. For example, if the string "192.0.2.1" is assigned to an attribute of the string data type, then the result is an ASCII string containing that value. However, if the same string is assigned to an attribute of the ipaddr data type, then the result is a 32-bit IPv4 address, with binary value 0xc0000201.

Example

update reply {
   &Session-Timeout <= 3600
}