openldap/doc/man/man5/ldif.5
1998-10-25 01:41:42 +00:00

113 lines
2.6 KiB
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.TH LDIF 5 "22 September 1998" "OpenLDAP LDVERSION"
.SH NAME
ldif \- LDAP Data Interchange Format
.SH DESCRIPTION
The LDAP Data Interchange Format (LDIF) is used to represent LDAP
entries in text form. The
.BR ldif2ldbm (8)
tools can be used to convert from LDIF format to the LDBM format
used by
.BR slapd (8).
The
.BR 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.
.LP
The basic form of an LDIF entry is:
.LP
.nf
.ft tt
[<id>]
dn: <distinguished name>
<attrtype>: <attrvalue>
<attrtype>: <attrvalue>
...
.ft
.fi
.LP
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
.BR 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.,
.LP
.nf
.ft tt
dn: cn=Barbara J Jensen, o=University of Michi
gan, c=US
.ft
.fi
.LP
Multiple attribute values are specified on separate lines, e.g.,
.LP
.nf
.ft tt
cn: Barbara J Jensen
cn: Babs Jensen
.ft
.fi
.LP
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:
.LP
.nf
.ft tt
cn:: IGJlZ2lucyB3aXRoIGEgc3BhY2U=
.ft
.fi
.LP
Multiple entries within the same LDIF file are separated by blank
lines.
.SH EXAMPLE
Here is an example of an LDIF file containing three entries.
.LP
.nf
.ft 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
...
.ft
.fi
.LP
Notice that the jpegPhoto in Jennifer Jensen's entry is encoded using
base 64.
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR ldap (3),
.BR slapd (8),
.BR ldif2ldbm (8),
.BR ldbmcat (8)
.LP
"The SLAPD and SLURPD Administrator's Guide"
.SH ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
.B OpenLDAP
is developed and maintained by The OpenLDAP Project (http://www.openldap.org/).
.B OpenLDAP
is derived from University of Michigan LDAP 3.3 Release.