The LDAP Data Interchange Format (LDIF) is used to represent LDAP entries in a simple text format. This section provides a brief description of the LDIF entry format which complements ldif(5) and the technical specification RFC2849.
The basic form of an entry is:
# comment
dn: <distinguished name>
<attrdesc>: <attrvalue>
<attrdesc>: <attrvalue>
...
Lines starting with a '#' character are comments. An attribute description may be a simple attribute type like cn or objectClass or 1.2.3 (an OID associated with an attribute type) or may include options such as cn;lang_en_US or userCertificate;binary.
A line may be continued by starting the next line with a single space or tab character. For example:
dn: cn=Barbara J Jensen,dc=example,dc=
com
cn: Barbara J
Jensen
is equivalent to:
dn: cn=Barbara J Jensen,dc=example,dc=com
cn: Barbara J Jensen
Multiple attribute values are specified on separate lines. e.g.,
cn: Barbara J Jensen
cn: Babs Jensen
If an <attrvalue> contains non-printing characters or begins with a space, a colon (':'), or a less than ('<'), the <attrdesc> is followed by a double colon and the base64 encoding of the value. For example, the value " begins with a space" would be encoded like this:
cn:: IGJlZ2lucyB3aXRoIGEgc3BhY2U=
You can also specify a URL containing the attribute value. For example, the following specifies the jpegPhoto value should be obtained from the file /path/to/file.jpeg.
cn:< file:///path/to/file.jpeg
Multiple entries within the same LDIF file are separated by blank lines. Here's an example of an LDIF file containing three entries.
# Barbara's Entry
dn: cn=Barbara J Jensen,dc=example,dc=com
cn: Barbara J Jensen
cn: Babs Jensen
objectClass: person
sn: Jensen
# Bjorn's Entry
dn: cn=Bjorn J Jensen,dc=example,dc=com
cn: Bjorn J Jensen
cn: Bjorn Jensen
objectClass: person
sn: Jensen
# Base64 encoded JPEG photo
jpegPhoto:: /9j/4AAQSkZJRgABAAAAAQABAAD/2wBDABALD
A4MChAODQ4SERATGCgaGBYWGDEjJR0oOjM9PDkzODdASFxOQ
ERXRTc4UG1RV19iZ2hnPk1xeXBkeFxlZ2P/2wBDARESEhgVG
# Jennifer's Entry
dn: cn=Jennifer J Jensen,dc=example,dc=com
cn: Jennifer J Jensen
cn: Jennifer Jensen
objectClass: person
sn: Jensen
# JPEG photo from file
jpegPhoto:< file:///path/to/file.jpeg
Notice that the jpegPhoto in Bjorn's entry is base 64 encoded and the jpegPhoto in Jennifer's entry is obtained from the location indicated by the URL.
Note: Trailing spaces are not trimmed from values in an LDIF file. Nor are multiple internal spaces compressed. If you don't want them in your data, don't put them there.
