-.TH LDIF 5 "13 November 1995" "U-M LDAP LDVERSION"
+.TH LDIF 5 "RELEASEDATE" "OpenLDAP LDVERSION"
+.\" $OpenLDAP$
+.\" Copyright 1998-2004 The OpenLDAP Foundation All Rights Reserved.
+.\" Copying restrictions apply. See COPYRIGHT/LICENSE.
.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.
+entries in text form. LDAP tools, such as
+.BR ldapadd (1)
+and
+.BR ldapsearch (1),
+read and write LDIF.
.LP
The basic form of an LDIF entry is:
.LP
.nf
.ft tt
- [<id>]
- dn: <distinguished name>
- <attrtype>: <attrvalue>
- <attrtype>: <attrvalue>
- ...
+ dn: <distinguished name>
+ <attrdesc>: <attrvalue>
+ <attrdesc>: <attrvalue>
+ <attrdesc>:: <base64-encoded-value>
+ <attrdesc>:< <URL>
+ ...
.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.,
+The value may be specified as UTF-8 text or as base64 encoded data,
+or a URI may be provided to the location of the attribute value.
+.LP
+A line may be continued by starting the next line with a single space
+or tab, e.g.,
.LP
.nf
.ft tt
- dn: cn=Barbara J Jensen, o=University of Michi
- gan, c=US
+ dn: cn=Barbara J Jensen,dc=exam
+ ple,dc=com
.ft
.fi
.LP
+Lines beginning with a sharpe sign ('#') are ignored.
+.LP
Multiple attribute values are specified on separate lines, e.g.,
.LP
.nf
.ft tt
- cn: Barbara J Jensen
- cn: Babs Jensen
+ cn: Barbara J Jensen
+ cn: Babs Jensen
+.ft
+.fi
+.LP
+If an value 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
-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:
+If the attribute value is located in a file, the <attrtype> is
+followed by a ':<' and a file: URI. e.g., the value contained
+in the file /tmp/value would be listed like this:
.LP
.nf
.ft tt
- cn:: IGJlZ2lucyB3aXRoIGEgc3BhY2U=
+ cn:< file:///tmp/value
.ft
.fi
+Other URI schemes (ftp,http) may be supported as well.
.LP
Multiple entries within the same LDIF file are separated by blank
lines.
.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=Barbara J Jensen,dc=example,dc=com
+ cn: Barbara J Jensen
+ cn: Babs Jensen
+ objectclass: person
+ description:< file://tmp/babs
+ 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=Bjorn J Jensen,dc=example,dc=com
+ 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
- ...
+ dn: cn=Jennifer J Jensen,dc=example,dc=com
+ 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.
+Notice that the description in Barbara Jensen's entry is
+read from file://tmp/babs and 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)
+.BR ldapsearch (1),
+.BR ldapadd (1).
.LP
-"The SLAPD and SLURPD Administrator's Guide"
+"LDAP Data Interchange Format," Good, G., RFC 2849.
+.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.
projects / openldap / blobdiff