LDIF (5)

DESCRIPTION

The LDAP Data Interchange Format (LDIF) is used to represent LDAP entries in text form. The ldif2ldbm (8) tools can be used to convert from LDIF format to the LDBM format used by slapd (8). The ldbmcat (8) tool can be used to do the reverse conversion. See "The SLAPD and SLURPD Administrator's Guide" for more information on this format and the conversion tools.

The basic form of an LDIF entry is:

tt
        [<id>]
        dn: <distinguished name>
        <attrtype>: <attrvalue>
        <attrtype>: <attrvalue>
        ...

where <id> is the optional entry ID (a positive decimal number). Normally, you would not supply the <id>, allowing the database creation tools to do that for you. The ldbmcat (8) program, however, produces an LDIF format that includes <id> so that new indexes created will be consistent with the existing database. A line may be continued by starting the next line with a single space or tab character, e.g.,

tt
        dn: cn=Barbara J Jensen, o=University of Michi
         gan, c=US

Multiple attribute values are specified on separate lines, e.g.,

tt
        cn: Barbara J Jensen
        cn: Babs Jensen

If an <attrvalue> contains a non-printing character, or begins with a space or a colon ':', the <attrtype> is followed by a double colon and the value is encoded in base 64 notation. e.g., the value " begins with a space" would be encoded like this:

tt
        cn:: IGJlZ2lucyB3aXRoIGEgc3BhY2U=

Multiple entries within the same LDIF file are separated by blank lines.

EXAMPLE

Here is an example of an LDIF file containing three entries.

tt
        dn: cn=Barbara J Jensen, o=University of Michi
         gan, c=US
        cn: Barbara J Jensen
        cn: Babs Jensen
        objectclass: person
        sn: Jensen

        dn: cn=Bjorn J Jensen, o=University of Michi
         gan, c=US
        cn: Bjorn J Jensen
        cn: Bjorn Jensen
        objectclass: person
        sn: Jensen

        dn: cn=Jennifer J Jensen, o=University of Michi
         gan, c=US
        cn: Jennifer J Jensen
        cn: Jennifer Jensen
        objectclass: person
        sn: Jensen
        jpegPhoto:: /9j/4AAQSkZJRgABAAAAAQABAAD/2wBDABALD
         A4MChAODQ4SERATGCgaGBYWGDEjJR0oOjM9PDkzODdASFxOQ
         ERXRTc4UG1RV19iZ2hnPk1xeXBkeFxlZ2P/2wBDARESEhgVG
        ...

Notice that the jpegPhoto in Jennifer Jensen's entry is encoded using base 64.

SEE ALSO

ldap(3) - slapd (8) - - ldif2ldbm (8) - - ldbmcat (8) -

"The SLAPD and SLURPD Administrator's Guide"

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

OpenLDAP is developed and maintained by The OpenLDAP Project (http://www.openldap.org/). OpenLDAP is derived from University of Michigan LDAP 3.3 Release.