RFC 2849 (rfc2849) - Page 1 of 14
The LDAP Data Interchange Format (LDIF) - Technical Specification
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
Network Working Group G. Good
Request for Comments: 2849 iPlanet e-commerce Solutions
Category: Standards Track June 2000
The LDAP Data Interchange Format (LDIF) - Technical Specification
Status of this Memo
This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2000). All Rights Reserved.
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
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.
Good Standards Track