The majority of the entries in a directory represent organizational people. In LDIF, the definition of an organizational person is as follows:
dn: distinguished_name objectClass: top objectClass: person objectClass: organizationalPerson objectClass: inetOrgPerson cn: common_name sn: surname list_of_optional_attributes
The following example shows an organizational person entry in LDIF format:
dn: uid=bjensen,ou=people,o=example.com objectclass: top objectclass: person objectclass: organizationalPerson objectclass: inetOrgPerson cn: Babs Jensen sn: Jensen givenname: Babs uid: bjensen ou: Marketing ou: people description: Fictional person for example purposes telephonenumber: 555-5557 userpassword: {sha}dkfljlk34r2kljdsfk9
The following table defines each element of the LDIF person entry.
Table 13–4 Organizational Person Entries in LDIF
LDIF Element |
Description |
dn: distinguished_name |
Required. Specifies the distinguished name for the entry. If there is a comma in the DN, the comma must be escaped with a backslash (\). For example, dn:uid=bjensen,ou=people,o=example.com Bolivia\,S.A. |
objectClass: top |
Required. Specifies the top object class. |
objectClass: person |
Specifies the person object class. This object class specification should be included because many LDAP clients require it during search operations for a person or an organizational person. |
objectClass: organizationalPerson |
Specifies the organizationalPerson object class. This object class specification should be included because some LDAP clients require it during search operations for an organizational person. |
objectClass: inetOrgPerson |
Specifies the inetOrgPerson object class. The inetOrgPerson object class is recommended for the creation of an organizational person entry because this object class includes the widest range of attributes. The uid attribute is required by this object class, and entries that contain this object class are named based on the value of the uid attribute. |
cn: common_name |
Required. Specifies the person’s common name which is the full name commonly used by the person. For example, cn: Bill Anderson. |
sn: surname |
Required. Specifies the person’s surname, or last name. For example, sn: Anderson. |
list_of_attributes |
Specifies the list of optional attributes that you maintain for the entry. |