Any discussion of LDAP requires a basic understanding of a set of
LDAP-specific terms:
entry — A single unit
within an LDAP directory. Each entry is identified by its unique
Distinguished Name (DN).
attributes — Information directly
associated with an entry. For example, an organization could be
represented as an LDAP entry. Attributes associated with the
organization might be its fax number, its address, and so on. People
can also be represented as entries in the LDAP directory. Common
attributes for people include the person's telephone number and
email address.
Some attributes are required, while other attributes are
optional. An objectclass definition sets
which attributes are required and which are not for each
entry. Objectclass definitions are found in various schema files,
located in the /etc/openldap/schema/
directory. For more information on LDAP schema, refer to Section 14.5 The /etc/openldap/schema/ Directory.
LDIF — The LDAP Data
Interchange Format (LDIF) is an ASCII text
representation of LDAP entries. Files used for importing data to
LDAP servers must be in LDIF format. An LDIF entry looks similar to
the following example:
[<id>]
dn: <distinguished name>
<attrtype>: <attrvalue>
<attrtype>: <attrvalue>
<attrtype>: <attrvalue> |
Each entry can contain as many
<attrtype>:
<attrvalue> pairs
as needed. A blank line indicates the end of an entry.
 | Caution |
|---|
| | All
<attrtype>
and
<attrvalue>
pairs must be defined in a corresponding
schema file to use this information.
|
Any value enclosed within a
"<" and a
">" is a variable and can be set
whenever a new LDAP entry is created. This rule does not apply,
however, to
<id>. The
<id>
is a number determined by the application used to edit the entry.
