openldap/doc/drafts/draft-good-ldap-ldif-xx.txt
Kurt Zeilenga 72e2d53143 rev 5
1999-11-22 01:20:49 +00:00

893 lines
31 KiB
Plaintext
Raw Blame History

This file contains invisible Unicode characters

This file contains invisible Unicode characters that are indistinguishable to humans but may be processed differently by a computer. If you think that this is intentional, you can safely ignore this warning. Use the Escape button to reveal them.

LDAP Data Interchange Format (LDIF) Gordon Good
INTERNET-DRAFT Netscape Communications
Status: Standards-Track 19 October 1999
The LDAP Data Interchange Format (LDIF) - Technical Specification
Filename: draft-good-ldap-ldif-05.txt
Status of this Memo
This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance
with all provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026.
Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that
other groups may also distribute working documents as
Internet-Drafts.
Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six
months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other
documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-
Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as
"work in progress."
To view the list Internet-Draft Shadow Directories, see
http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html.
This Internet Draft expires 19 April, 2000.
Abstract
This document describes a file format suitable for describing
directory information or modifications made to directory information.
The file format, known as LDIF, for LDAP Data Interchange Format, is
typically used to import and export directory information between
LDAP-based directory servers, or to describe a set of changes which
are to be applied to a directory.
Background and Intended Usage
There are a number of situations where a common interchange format is
desirable. For example, one might wish to export a copy of the
contents of a directory server to a file, move that file to a
different machine, and import the contents into a second directory
server.
Additionally, by using a well-defined interchange format, development
Good October 18, 1999 [Page 1]
INTERNET-DRAFT LDAP Data Interchange Format 19 October 1999
of data import tools from legacy systems is facilitated. A fairly
simple set of tools written in awk or perl can, for example, convert
a database of personnel information into an LDIF file. This file can
then be imported into a directory server, regardless of the internal
database representation the target directory server uses.
The LDIF format was originally developed and used in the University
of Michigan LDAP implementation. The first use of LDIF was in
describing directory entries. Later, the format was expanded to
allow representation of changes to directory entries.
Relationship to the application/directory MIME content-type:
The application/directory MIME content-type [1] is a general
framework and format for conveying directory information, and is
independent of any particular directory service. The LDIF format is
a simpler format which is perhaps easier to create, and may also be
used, as noted, to describe a set of changes to be applied to a
directory.
The key words "MUST", "MAY", and "SHOULD" used in this document are
to be interpreted as described in [7].
Definition of the LDAP Data Interchange Format
The LDIF format is used to convey directory information, or a
description of a set of changes made to directory entries. An LDIF
file consists of a series of records separated by line separators. A
record consists of a sequence of lines describing a directory entry,
or a sequence of lines describing a set of changes to a directory
entry. An LDIF file specifies a set of directory entries, or a set
of changes to be applied to directory entries, but not both.
There is a one-to-one correlation between LDAP operations that modify
the directory (add, delete, modify, and modrdn), and the types of
changerecords described below ("add", "delete", "modify", and
"modrdn" or "moddn"). This correspondence is intentional, and
permits a straightforward translation from LDIF changerecords to
protocol operations.
Formal Syntax Definition of LDIF
The following definition uses the augmented Backus-Naur Form
specified in RFC 2234 [2].
ldif-file = ldif-content / ldif-changes
Good October 18, 1999 [Page 2]
INTERNET-DRAFT LDAP Data Interchange Format 19 October 1999
ldif-content = version-spec 1*(1*SEP ldif-attrval-record)
ldif-changes = version-spec 1*(1*SEP ldif-change-record)
ldif-attrval-record = dn-spec SEP 1*attrval-spec
ldif-change-record = dn-spec SEP *control changerecord
version-spec = "version:" FILL version-number
version-number = 1*DIGIT
; version-number MUST be "1" for the
; LDIF format described in this document.
dn-spec = "dn:" (FILL distinguishedName /
":" FILL base64-distinguishedName)
distinguishedName = SAFE-UTF8-STRING
; a distinguished name, as defined in [3]
base64-distinguishedName = BASE64-UTF8-STRING
; a distinguishedName which has been base64
; encoded (see note 10, below)
rdn = SAFE-UTF8-STRING
; a relative distinguished name, defined as
; <name-component> in [3]
base64-rdn = BASE64-UTF8-STRING
; an rdn which has been base64 encoded (see
; note 10, below)
control = "control:" FILL ldap-oid ; controlType
0*1(1*SPACE ("true" / "false")) ; criticality
0*1(value-spec) ; controlValue
SEP
; (See note 9, below)
ldap-oid = 1*DIGIT 0*1("." 1*DIGIT)
; An LDAPOID, as defined in [4]
attrval-spec = AttributeDescription value-spec SEP
value-spec = ":" ( FILL 0*1(SAFE-STRING) /
":" FILL (BASE64-STRING) /
"<" FILL url)
; See notes 7 and 8, below
Good October 18, 1999 [Page 3]
INTERNET-DRAFT LDAP Data Interchange Format 19 October 1999
url = <a Uniform Resource Locator, as defined in [6]>
; (See Note 6, below)
AttributeDescription = AttributeType [";" options]
; Definition taken from [4]
AttributeType = ldap-oid / (ALPHA *(attr-type-chars))
options = option / (option ";" options)
option = 1*opt-char
attr-type-chars = ALPHA / DIGIT / "-"
opt-char = attr-type-chars
changerecord = "changetype:" FILL
(change-add / change-delete /
change-modify / change-moddn)
change-add = "add" SEP 1*attrval-spec
change-delete = "delete" SEP
change-moddn = ("modrdn" / "moddn") SEP
"newrdn:" ( FILL rdn /
":" FILL base64-rdn) SEP
"deleteoldrdn:" FILL ("0" / "1") SEP
0*1("newsuperior:"
( FILL distinguishedName /
":" FILL base64-distinguishedName) SEP)
change-modify = "modify" SEP *mod-spec
mod-spec = ("add:" / "delete:" / "replace:")
FILL AttributeDescription SEP
*attrval-spec
"-" SEP
SPACE = %x20
; ASCII SP, space
FILL = *SPACE
SEP = (CR LF / LF)
CR = %x0D
; ASCII CR, carriage return
Good October 18, 1999 [Page 4]
INTERNET-DRAFT LDAP Data Interchange Format 19 October 1999
LF = %x0A
; ASCII LF, line feed
ALPHA = %x41-5A / %x61-7A
; A-Z / a-z
DIGIT = %x30-39
; 0-9
UTF8-1 = %x80-BF
UTF8-2 = %xC0-DF UTF8-1
UTF8-3 = %xE0-EF 2UTF8-1
UTF8-4 = %xF0-F7 3UTF8-1
UTF8-5 = %xF8-FB 4UTF8-1
UTF8-6 = %xFC-FD 5UTF8-1
SAFE-CHAR = %x01-09 / %x0B-0C / %x0E-7F
; any value <= 127 decimal except NUL, LF, and CR
SAFE-INIT-CHAR = %x01-09 / %x0B-0C / %x0E-1F /
%x21-39 / %x3B / %x3D-7F
; any value <= 127 except NUL, LF, CR,
; SPACE, colon (":", ASCII 58 decimal)
; and less-than ("<" , ASCII 60 decimal)
SAFE-STRING = [SAFE-INIT-CHAR *SAFE-CHAR]
SAFE-UTF8-CHAR = SAFE-CHAR / UTF8-2 / UTF8-3 /
UTF8-4 / UTF8-5 / UTF8-6
SAFE-INIT-UTF8-CHAR = SAFE-INIT-CHAR / UTF8-2 / UTF8-3 /
UTF8-4 / UTF8-5 / UTF8-6
SAFE-UTF8-STRING = [SAFE-INIT-UTF8-CHAR *SAFE-UTF8-CHAR]
BASE64-UTF8-STRING = BASE64-STRING
; MUST be the base64 encoding of a valid
; string of UTF-8 characters
BASE64-CHAR = %x2B / %x2F / %x30-39 / %x3D / %x41-5A / %x61-7A
; +, /, 0-9, =, A-Z, and a-z
; as specified in [5]
Good October 18, 1999 [Page 5]
INTERNET-DRAFT LDAP Data Interchange Format 19 October 1999
BASE64-STRING = [*(BASE64-CHAR)]
Notes on LDIF Syntax
1) For the LDIF format described in this document, the version number
MUST be "1". If the version number is absent, implementations MAY
choose to interpret the contents as an older LDIF file format,
supported by the University of Michigan ldap-3.3 implementation [8].
2) Any non-empty line, including comment lines, in an LDIF file MAY
be folded by inserting a line separator (SEP) and a SPACE. Folding
MUST NOT occur before the first character of the line. In other
words, folding a line into two lines, the first of which is empty, is
not permitted. Any line that begins with a single space MUST be
treated as a continuation of the previous (non-empty) line. When
joining folded lines, exactly one space character at the beginning of
each continued line must be discarded. Implementations SHOULD NOT
fold lines in the middle of a multi-byte UTF-8 character.
3) Any line that begins with a pound-sign ("#", ASCII 35) is a
comment line, and MUST be ignored when parsing an LDIF file.
4) Any dn or rdn that contains characters other than those defined as
"SAFE-UTF8-CHAR", or begins with a character other than those defined
as "SAFE-INIT-UTF8-CHAR", above, MUST be base-64 encoded. Other
values MAY be base-64 encoded. Any value that contains characters
other than those defined as "SAFE-CHAR", or begins with a character
other than those defined as "SAFE-INIT-CHAR", above, MUST be base-64
encoded. Other values MAY be base-64 encoded.
5) When a zero-length attribute value is to be included directly in
an LDIF file, it MUST be represented as AttributeDescription ":" FILL
SEP. For example, "seeAlso:" followed by a newline represents a
zero-length "seeAlso" attribute value. It is also permissible for
the value referred to by a URL to be of zero length.
6) When a URL is specified in an attrval-spec, the following
conventions apply:
a) Implementations SHOULD support the file:// URL format. The
contents of the referenced file are to be included verbatim
in the interpreted output of the LDIF file.
b) Implementations MAY support other URL formats. The semantics
associated with each supported URL will be documented in
an associated Applicability Statement.
7) Distinguished names, relative distinguished names, and attribute
values of DirectoryString syntax MUST be valid UTF-8 strings.
Good October 18, 1999 [Page 6]
INTERNET-DRAFT LDAP Data Interchange Format 19 October 1999
Implementations that read LDIF MAY interpret files in which these
entities are stored in some other character set encoding, but
implementations MUST NOT generate LDIF content which does not contain
valid UTF-8 data.
8) Values or distinguished names that end with SPACE SHOULD be base-
64 encoded.
9) When controls are included in an LDIF file, implementations MAY
choose to ignore some or all of them. This may be necessary if the
changes described in the LDIF file are being sent on an LDAPv2
connection (LDAPv2 does not support controls), or the particular
controls are not supported by the remote server. If the criticality
of a control is "true", then the implementation MUST either include
the control, or MUST NOT send the operation to a remote server.
10) When an attrval-spec, distinguishedName, or rdn is base64-
encoded, the encoding rules specified in [5] are used with the
following exceptions: a) The requirement that base64 output streams
must be represented as lines of no more than 76 characters is
removed. Lines in LDIF files may only be folded according to the
folding rules described in note 2, above. b) Base64 strings in [5]
may contain characters other than those defined in BASE64-CHAR, and
are ignored. LDIF does not permit any extraneous characters, other
than those used for line folding.
Examples of LDAP Data Interchange Format
Example 1: An simple LDAP file with two entries
version: 1
dn: cn=Barbara Jensen, ou=Product Development, dc=airius, dc=com
objectclass: top
objectclass: person
objectclass: organizationalPerson
cn: Barbara Jensen
cn: Barbara J Jensen
cn: Babs Jensen
sn: Jensen
uid: bjensen
telephonenumber: +1 408 555 1212
description: A big sailing fan.
dn: cn=Bjorn Jensen, ou=Accounting, dc=airius, dc=com
objectclass: top
objectclass: person
objectclass: organizationalPerson
Good October 18, 1999 [Page 7]
INTERNET-DRAFT LDAP Data Interchange Format 19 October 1999
cn: Bjorn Jensen
sn: Jensen
telephonenumber: +1 408 555 1212
Example 2: A file containing an entry with a folded attribute value
version: 1
dn:cn=Barbara Jensen, ou=Product Development, dc=airius, dc=com
objectclass:top
objectclass:person
objectclass:organizationalPerson
cn:Barbara Jensen
cn:Barbara J Jensen
cn:Babs Jensen
sn:Jensen
uid:bjensen
telephonenumber:+1 408 555 1212
description:Babs is a big sailing fan, and travels extensively in sea
rch of perfect sailing conditions.
title:Product Manager, Rod and Reel Division
Example 3: A file containing a base-64-encoded value
version: 1
dn: cn=Gern Jensen, ou=Product Testing, dc=airius, dc=com
objectclass: top
objectclass: person
objectclass: organizationalPerson
cn: Gern Jensen
cn: Gern O Jensen
sn: Jensen
uid: gernj
telephonenumber: +1 408 555 1212
description:: V2hhdCBhIGNhcmVmdWwgcmVhZGVyIHlvdSBhcmUhICBUaGlzIHZhbHVlIGlzIGJ
hc2UtNjQtZW5jb2RlZCBiZWNhdXNlIGl0IGhhcyBhIGNvbnRyb2wgY2hhcmFjdGVyIGluIGl0ICh
hIENSKS4NICBCeSB0aGUgd2F5LCB5b3Ugc2hvdWxkIHJlYWxseSBnZXQgb3V0IG1vcmUu
Example 4: A file containing an entries with UTF-8-encoded attribute
values, including language tags. Comments indicate the contents
of UTF-8-encoded attributes and distinguished names.
version: 1
dn:: b3U95Za25qWt6YOoLG89QWlyaXVz
# dn:: ou=<JapaneseOU>,o=Airius
objectclass: top
objectclass: organizationalUnit
ou:: 5Za25qWt6YOo
# ou:: <JapaneseOU>
Good October 18, 1999 [Page 8]
INTERNET-DRAFT LDAP Data Interchange Format 19 October 1999
ou;lang-ja:: 5Za25qWt6YOo
# ou;lang-ja:: <JapaneseOU>
ou;lang-ja;phonetic:: 44GI44GE44GO44KH44GG44G2
# ou;lang-ja:: <JapaneseOU_in_phonetic_representation>
ou;lang-en: Sales
description: Japanese office
dn:: dWlkPXJvZ2FzYXdhcmEsb3U95Za25qWt6YOoLG89QWlyaXVz
# dn:: uid=<uid>,ou=<JapaneseOU>,o=Airius
userpassword: {SHA}O3HSv1MusyL4kTjP+HKI5uxuNoM=
objectclass: top
objectclass: person
objectclass: organizationalPerson
objectclass: inetOrgPerson
uid: rogasawara
mail: rogasawara@airius.co.jp
givenname;lang-ja:: 44Ot44OJ44OL44O8
# givenname;lang-ja:: <JapaneseGivenname>
sn;lang-ja:: 5bCP56yg5Y6f
# sn;lang-ja:: <JapaneseSn>
cn;lang-ja:: 5bCP56yg5Y6fIOODreODieODi+ODvA==
# cn;lang-ja:: <JapaneseCn>
title;lang-ja:: 5Za25qWt6YOoIOmDqOmVtw==
# title;lang-ja:: <JapaneseTitle>
preferredlanguage: ja
givenname:: 44Ot44OJ44OL44O8
# givenname:: <JapaneseGivenname>
sn:: 5bCP56yg5Y6f
# sn:: <JapaneseSn>
cn:: 5bCP56yg5Y6fIOODreODieODi+ODvA==
# cn:: <JapaneseCn>
title:: 5Za25qWt6YOoIOmDqOmVtw==
# title:: <JapaneseTitle>
givenname;lang-ja;phonetic:: 44KN44Gp44Gr44O8
# givenname;lang-ja;phonetic::
<JapaneseGivenname_in_phonetic_representation_kana>
sn;lang-ja;phonetic:: 44GK44GM44GV44KP44KJ
# sn;lang-ja;phonetic:: <JapaneseSn_in_phonetic_representation_kana>
cn;lang-ja;phonetic:: 44GK44GM44GV44KP44KJIOOCjeOBqeOBq+ODvA==
# cn;lang-ja;phonetic:: <JapaneseCn_in_phonetic_representation_kana>
title;lang-ja;phonetic:: 44GI44GE44GO44KH44GG44G2IOOBtuOBoeOCh+OBhg==
# title;lang-ja;phonetic:: <JapaneseTitle_in_phonetic_representation_kana>
givenname;lang-en: Rodney
sn;lang-en: Ogasawara
cn;lang-en: Rodney Ogasawara
title;lang-en: Sales, Director
Example 5: A file containing a reference to an external file
Good October 18, 1999 [Page 9]
INTERNET-DRAFT LDAP Data Interchange Format 19 October 1999
version: 1
dn: cn=Horatio Jensen, ou=Product Testing, dc=airius, dc=com
objectclass: top
objectclass: person
objectclass: organizationalPerson
cn: Horatio Jensen
cn: Horatio N Jensen
sn: Jensen
uid: hjensen
telephonenumber: +1 408 555 1212
jpegphoto:< file:///usr/local/directory/photos/hjensen.jpg
Example 6: A file containing a series of change records and comments
version: 1
# Add a new entry
dn: cn=Fiona Jensen, ou=Marketing, dc=airius, dc=com
changetype: add
objectclass: top
objectclass: person
objectclass: organizationalPerson
cn: Fiona Jensen
sn: Jensen
uid: fiona
telephonenumber: +1 408 555 1212
jpegphoto:< file:///usr/local/directory/photos/fiona.jpg
# Delete an existing entry
dn: cn=Robert Jensen, ou=Marketing, dc=airius, dc=com
changetype: delete
# Modify an entry's relative distinguished name
dn: cn=Paul Jensen, ou=Product Development, dc=airius, dc=com
changetype: modrdn
newrdn: cn=Paula Jensen
deleteoldrdn: 1
# Rename an entry and move all of its children to a new location in
# the directory tree (only implemented by LDAPv3 servers).
dn: ou=PD Accountants, ou=Product Development, dc=airius, dc=com
changetype: modrdn
newrdn: ou=Product Development Accountants
deleteoldrdn: 0
newsuperior: ou=Accounting, dc=airius, dc=com
# Modify an entry: add an additional value to the postaladdress attribute,
# completely delete the description attribute, replace the telephonenumber
# attribute with two values, and delete a specific value from the
Good October 18, 1999 [Page 10]
INTERNET-DRAFT LDAP Data Interchange Format 19 October 1999
# facsimiletelephonenumber attribute
dn: cn=Paula Jensen, ou=Product Development, dc=airius, dc=com
changetype: modify
add: postaladdress
postaladdress: 123 Anystreet $ Sunnyvale, CA $ 94086
-
delete: description
-
replace: telephonenumber
telephonenumber: +1 408 555 1234
telephonenumber: +1 408 555 5678
-
delete: facsimiletelephonenumber
facsimiletelephonenumber: +1 408 555 9876
-
# Modify an entry: replace the postaladdress attribute with an empty
# set of values (which will cause the attribute to be removed), and
# delete the entire description attribute. Note that the first will
# always succeed, while the second will only succeed if at least
# one value for the description attribute is present.
dn: cn=Ingrid Jensen, ou=Product Support, dc=airius, dc=com
changetype: modify
replace: postaladdress
-
delete: description
-
Example 7: An LDIF file containing a change record with a control
version: 1
# Delete an entry. The operation will attach the LDAPv3
# Tree Delete Control defined in [9]. The criticality
# field is "true" and the controlValue field is
# absent, as required by [9].
dn: ou=Product Development, dc=airius, dc=com
control: 1.2.840.113556.1.4.805 true
changetype: delete
Security Considerations
Given typical directory applications, an LDIF file is likely to
contain sensitive personal data. Appropriate measures should be
taken to protect the privacy of those persons whose data is contained
in an LDIF file.
Since ":<" directives can cause external content to be included when
processing an LDIF file, one should be cautious of accepting LDIF
Good October 18, 1999 [Page 11]
INTERNET-DRAFT LDAP Data Interchange Format 19 October 1999
files from external sources. A "trojan" LDIF file could name a file
with sensitive contents and cause it to be included in a directory
entry, which a hostile entity could read via LDAP.
LDIF does not provide any method for carrying authentication
information with an LDIF file. Users of LDIF files must take care to
verify the integrity of an LDIF file received from an external
source.
Appendix A: Differences from previous versions of this document
This section summarizes the differences between previous revisions of
this draft, as an aid to document reviewers. This section will be
deleted prior to publication as an RFC.
Differences between draft-ietf-asid-ldif-00.txt and draft-ietf-asid-
ldif-01.txt
1) The BNF has been modified to explicitly disallow ldif content and
change records in the same file. In other words, a given LDIF file
is either a series of directory entries, or a series of
modifications. An LDIF file MUST NOT contain both types of records.
2) External references are now URLs, instead of simple filenames.
3) The BNF has been modified to allow base-64-encoded distinguished
names.
4) Multiple separators are now permitted between records.
Differences between draft-ietf-asid-ldif-01.txt and draft-ietf-asid-
ldif-02.txt
1) The BNF has been modified such that a simple attribute name
("attrname") has been replaced with an "attribute-description" as
defined in the LDAPv3 protocol document [4]. This permits language
codes and other attribute options to be carried in an LDIF file.
2) A new option, "charset", may be used in attribute descriptions.
This facilitates multi-lingual character set conversion.
3) The definition of the "safe" and "safe-initval" productions has
been relaxed to allow non-ASCII characters with values greater than
126. This permits more natural expression of character sets such as
Latin-1 in LDIF files.
Differences between draft-ietf-asid-ldif-02.txt and draft-good-ldap-
ldif-00.txt
Good October 18, 1999 [Page 12]
INTERNET-DRAFT LDAP Data Interchange Format 19 October 1999
1) The "charset-option" and "charset-name" productions were removed
from the BNF, due to objections within the working group. UTF-8 is
the only character set that may be used in LDIF.
2) Examples were reworked to reflect the above change, and to include
an example of a non-western language represented in UTF-8.
Differences between draft-ietf-good-ldif-00.txt and draft-good-ldap-
ldif-01.txt
1) Added version identifiers to the examples - they were missing.
2) Clarified that LDIF files must use UTF-8.
Differences between draft-good-ldap-ldif-01.txt and draft-good-ldap-
ldif-02.txt
1) Added a recommendation that values ending in SPACE should be
base-64 encoded.
2) Clarified the procedure for joining folded lines.
3) Updated header to reflect new IETF I-D guidelines.
Differences between draft-good-ldap-ldif-02.txt and draft-good-ldap-
ldif-03.txt
1) Fixed reference from RFC 1779 to RFC 2253.
2) Version string is now required.
3) Comment lines may be folded (this is now explicitly mentioned in
note 2).
4) Moved this section (differences between draft versions) to an
appendix.
5) Updated examples to use "dc=airius, dc=com" instead of "o=Ace
Industry, c=US"
6) Cleaned up references section.
Differences between draft-good-ldap-ldif-03.txt and draft-good-ldap-
ldif-04.txt
1) The grammar now requires that an LDIF file end with one or more
SEP sequences (newlines). This was inadvertently prohibited in
earlier revisions of the grammar.
Good October 18, 1999 [Page 13]
INTERNET-DRAFT LDAP Data Interchange Format 19 October 1999
2) Several minor spelling and typographical errors were fixed.
3) Reworked the grammar to make it more readable. Hallvard Furuseth
(University of Oslo) provided the new BNF.
4) Excluded NUL from "safe" production.
5) Changed "0,1*xxx" "0*1xxx" in compliance with RFC822.
6) Fixed a glitch in the grammar that allowed multiple changetypes
within a single LDIF change record. The intent is that only one
changetype per change record is permitted.
7) Fixed a mistake in example 2 (folded attribute value).
8) The BNF now explicitly requires that zero-length attribute values
be encoded as attribute-description ":" FILL SEP.
9) Factored "changetype: FILL" out of the productions for change-add,
change-delete, change-moddn, and change-modify.
10) RFC 2251 permits an LDAP modify operation with no modifications,
and also permits an attribute with no values. Although it's unclear
what the purpose of these constructs might be, I altered the BNF to
allow these to be described in LDIF.
11) The BNF may now carry LDAP v3 controls in ldif-change-records.
The "value-spec" production was factored out to allow it to be used
in the definition of a control.
12) Clarified the rules for line-folding to prohibit a line from
being folded into two lines, the first of which is empty. This
guarantees that the sequence SEP SEP terminates an LDIF record, and
allows, for example, "perl -n00" to be used to read an entire LDIF
record into the $_ variable.
Differences between draft-good-ldap-ldif-04.txt and draft-good-ldap-
ldif-05.txt
1) The grammar has been rewritten to use the RFC2234 ABNF, replacing
the RFC822 ABNF.
2) The grammar makes fewer uses of <prose-val>.
3) DNs, RDNs, and attribute values with DirectoryString are now
explicitly called out as UTF-8 strings.
4) An error in the BNF for "control" was fixed.
Good October 18, 1999 [Page 14]
INTERNET-DRAFT LDAP Data Interchange Format 19 October 1999
5) An additional ldif-change-record was added to example 6.
6) Since RFC 1521 defines base-64 encoding with different folding
rules, and permits illegal characters (which should be ignored), an
explanatory note has been added. This note explains that lines must
be folded according to LDIF rules, not RFC 1521 rules, and that
extraneous characters are not permitted.
7) DNs, values, and rdns containing octets > 127 must be base-64
encoded.
Acknowledgments
The LDAP Interchange Format was developed as part of the University
of Michigan LDAP reference implementation, and was developed by Tim
Howes, Mark Smith, and Gordon Good. It is based in part upon work
supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. NCR-
9416667.
Members of the IETF LDAP Extensions Working group provided many
helpful suggestions. In particular, Hallvard B. Furuseth of the
University of Oslo made many significant contributions to this
document, including a thorough review and rewrite of the BNF.
References
[1] Howes, T., Smith, M., "A MIME Content-Type for Directory Infor-
mation", RFC 2425, September 1998,
<URL:http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2245.txt>
[2] Crocker, D., Overell, P., "Augmented BNF for Syntax Specifica-
tions: ABNF" , RFC 2234, November 1997,
<URL:http://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfc2234.txt>
[3] Wahl, M., Kille, S., Howes, T., "A String Representation of Dis-
tinguished Names", RFC 2253,
<URL:http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2253.txt>
[4] Wahl, M., Howes, T., Kille, S., "Lightweight Directory Access
Protocol (v3)", RFC 2251, July, 1997,
<URL:ftp://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2251.txt>
[5] Borenstein, N., Freed, N., "MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail
Extensions) Part One: Mechanisms for Specifying and Describing
the Format of Internet Message Bodies", section 5.2, "Base64
Content-Transfer-Encoding", RFC 1521, December 1993,
Good October 18, 1999 [Page 15]
INTERNET-DRAFT LDAP Data Interchange Format 19 October 1999
<URL:http://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfc1521.txt>
[6] T. Berners-Lee, L. Masinter, M. McCahill, "Uniform Resource
Locators (URL)", RFC 1738, December 1994,
<URL:http://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfc1738.txt>
[7] S. Bradner, "Key Words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement
Levels", Harvard University, RFC 2119, March 1997,
<URL:http://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfc2119.txt>
[8] The SLAPD and SLURPD Administrators Guide. University of Michi-
gan, April 1996. <URL:
http://www.umich.edu/~dirsvcs/ldap/doc/guides/slapd/toc.html>
[9] M. P. Armijo, "Tree Delete Control", Microsoft Corporation,
INTERNET-DRAFT June 1999, <URL:http://www.ietf.org/internet-
drafts/draft-armijo-ldap-treedelete-01.txt>
Author's Address
Gordon Good
Netscape Communications Corp.
501 E. Middlefield Rd.
Mailstop MV068
Mountain View, CA 94043, USA
Phone: +1 650 937-3825
EMail: ggood@netscape.com
This Internet Draft expires 19 April, 2000.
Good October 18, 1999 [Page 16]