LDAP Terminology
An entry is one unit in an LDAP directory. Each
entry is identified by its unique Distinguished
Name (DN).
Each entry has attributes, which are pieces of
information directly associated with the entry. For example, an organization could
be an LDAP entry. Attributes associated with the organization might be
its fax number, its address, and so on. People can also be entries in
the LDAP directory. Common attributes for people include the person's telephone
numbers and email addresses.
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.
The LDAP Data Interchange Format (LDIF) is an
ASCII text format for LDAP entries. Files that import or export data to
and from 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> |
An 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, except for
<id>. The
<id>
is a number determined by the application you use to edit the entry.
