LDAP System Administration

Updating the Directory

Searching for objects in the directory is only the beginning. The real power of scripting is that it allows you to modify the directory; you can add entries, delete entries, and modify existing entries.

Adding New Entries

The first script, import.pl , reads the contents of an LDIF file (specified as a command-line argument) and adds each entry in the file to the directory. Here’s a starting point; it resembles the last version of your search.pl script:

#!/usr/bin/perl
##
## Usage: ./import.pl filename
##
## Author: Gerald Carter <[e-mail]>
## 
use Net::LDAP;
use Net::LDAP::LDIF;
      
## Connect and bind to the server.
$ldap = Net::LDAP->new ("ldap.plainjoe.org", port =>389,
                        version => 3 )
or die $!;
      
## Secure data and credentials.
$result = $ldap->start_tls(  );
die $result->error(  ) if $result->code(  );
      
## Bind to the server. The account must have sufficient privileges because you will 
## be adding new entries.
$result = $ldap->bind(
        "cn=Directory Admin,ou=people,dc=plainjoe,dc=org", 
         password => "secret");
die $result->error(  ) if $result->code(  );
      
## Open the LDIF file or fail. Check for existence first.
die "$ARGV[0] not found!\n" unless ( -f $ARGV[0] );
$ldif = Net::LDAP::LDIF->new ($ARGV[0], "r")
      or die $!;

Once the script has a handle to the input file, you can begin processing the entries. Net::LDAP::LDIF has an eof( ) method for detecting the end of input. The main loop continues until this check returns true.

while ( ! $ldif->eof ) { ## Get next ...