OpenLDAP Files

Red Hat Linux 6.2: The Official Red Hat Linux Reference Guide
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# `OpenLDAP` Files

OpenLDAP configuration files are installed into the `/etc/openldap` directory. If you do an ls on `/etc/openldap`, you'll see something like:

    $ ls
    ldap.conf        ldapsearchprefs.conf  slapd.at.conf  slapd.oc.conf
    ldapfilter.conf  ldaptemplates.conf    slapd.conf
    $

The files you should know about are `slapd.conf`, `slapd.at.conf` and `slapd.oc.conf`. The `slapd.conf` file contains configuration information for the slapd daemon and for all of the database back-ends. You will need to make some changes to `slapd.conf` before you start the slapd daemon.

The `slapd.at.conf` file holds attribute syntax definitions for the LDAP directory. Attribute syntax definitions describe the type of information that the attribute provides. You have five choices:

- bin -- binary information

- ces -- case exact string (a string whose case matters)

- cis -- case ignore string (a string whose case doesn't matter)

- tel -- a telephone number (blank spaces and hyphens are ignored)

- dn -- the distinguished name

For example, here are attribute syntax definitions from a typical `slapd.at.conf`:

    attribute       photo                                   bin
    attribute       personalsignature                       bin
    attribute       jpegphoto                               bin
    attribute       audio                                   bin
    attribute       labeledurl                              ces
    attribute       ref                                     ces
    attribute       userpassword                            ces
    attribute       telephonenumber                         tel

Certain LDAP-enabled applications may require that you edit the `slapd.at.conf` file, usually to add particular attribute syntax definitions.

The `slapd.oc.conf` file includes the objectclass definitions for an LDAP directory. The objectclass definitions state which attributes are required and which attributes are optional for particular objectclasses.

The following excerpt from a typical `slapd.oc.conf` file contains the objectclass definitions for the top, alias, and referral objectclasses:

    objectclass top
            requires
                    objectClass

    objectclass alias
            requires
                    aliasedObjectName,
                    objectClass

    objectclass referral
            requires
                    ref,
                    objectClass

You may need to edit the objectclass definitions in your `slapd.oc.conf`, depending upon how you're going to use your LDAP directory. For example, if you're creating an LDAP directory of employees for use in your organization, you'll probably have specific required attributes for certain objectclasses that might not be used outside the organization (e.g., an employee ID number internal to your organization might be a required attribute for an objectclass of "person").

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